DHSS today announced six deaths and 476 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past four days. 427 were residents in:  Anchorage (137), Wasilla (100), Palmer (45), Unalaska (31), Fairbanks (22), North Pole (16), Eagle River (10), Kodiak (9), Bethel Census Area (7), Chugiak (6), Kusilvak Census Area (6), Ketchikan (5), Dillingham (4), Juneau (4), Copper River Census Area (3), Utqiaġvik (3), Big Lake (2), Northwest Arctic Borough (2), Seward (2), Skagway (2), and one each in Bristol Bay/ Lake Peninsula Borough, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Girdwood, Kenai, Kenai Peninsula South, Kotzebue, Nome Census Area, Sitka, Soldotna, Willow, and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.  

49 new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Aleutians East Borough: 2 in seafood industry
• Anchorage: one in seafood industry
• Juneau: one with purpose under investigation
• Kodiak:  one with purpose other
• Unalaska: 34 in seafood industry, three with purpose under investigation
• North Slope Borough: five in North Slope oil industry
• Location under investigation: two with purpose under investigation

27 resident cases were added to the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 54,736 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,177.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 18.1 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Three regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and one region is at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 61.08 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 36.44 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 24.97 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 22.24 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 14.51 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 12.44 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region – Southern: 11.11 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Juneau City and Borough: 6.92 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 6.51 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 6.12 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region – Northern: 4.19 cases per 100,000

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS– There have been a total of 1,199 hospitalizations and 285 deaths, with three new hospitalizations and six new deaths of Alaska residents reported over the past four days. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died.[content id=”79272″]

Six deaths were from death certificate reviews over the past several months:

• A female Utqiaġvik resident 80 years or older
• A male Bethel resident 80 years or older
• A female Anchorage resident 80 years or older
• A male Palmer resident 80 years or older
• A male Wasilla resident 80 years or older
• A female Wasilla resident in her 60s

One previously identified male Anchorage resident in his 50s has been removed from the total number of Alaska resident deaths upon final review of the death certificate.

There are currently 28 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and fifteen additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 43 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Two of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 2.9%.

TESTING – A total of 1,605,827 tests have been conducted, with 27,391 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.12%.

VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 128,304 dose #1 and 65,310 dose #2 COVID-19 vaccinations given for a total of 193,614 doses administered in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard.

ALASKA PIONEER HOMES UPDATE – Since the last update on Feb. 9, one positive case of COVID-19 was identified in a staff member at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home. All staff and potential contacts have been tested with negative results; testing will continue twice weekly until two weeks have passed without any new exposures. This is the only active case in the Pioneer Home system and all the homes have had at least two vaccination clinics.

TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are being distributed throughout Alaska but we all still need to maintain our COVID-19 protective measures to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy: coronavirus.dhss.alaska.gov

Notes: Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause delays in getting reports entered and counted. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub.

There is a lag between cases being reported on the DHSS data dashboard and what local communities report. Each case is an individual person even if they are tested multiple times. Total tests are a not a count of unique individuals tested and includes both positive and negative results. The current number of hospitalized patients represents more real-time data compared to the cumulative total hospitalizations. Current hospitalizations are reported for all facilities, not just general acute care and critical access facilities, as is the default on the dashboard. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit data.coronavirus.alaska.gov; weekly and daily case summaries are archived at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/communications.aspx#updates.

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