DHSS today announced three deaths and 359 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 355 were residents in: Anchorage (118), Palmer (40), Eagle River (33), Fairbanks (33), Wasilla (25), Kodiak (20), Bethel (14), North Pole (9), Tok (8), Soldotna (7), Utqiaġvik (7), Bethel Census Area (4), Sitka (4), Kenai Peninsula Borough – North (3), Unalaska (3), Delta Junction (2), Dillingham Census Area (2), Girdwood (2), Homer (2), Kenai (2), Northwest Arctic Borough (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2), and one each in Aleutians West Census Area, Big Lake, Chugiak, Cordova, Craig, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kusilvak Census Area, North Slope Borough, Seward, Sterling, Valdez, and Valdez-Cordova Census Area.

Four new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Two in Juneau in the mining industry
• One in Unalaska with purpose under investigation
• One with both location and purpose under investigation

Five resident cases and one nonresident cases were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures. The total number of Alaska resident cases is 43,361 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,467.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 58.01 cases per 100,000. All regions in Alaska except one are in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 121.08 per 100,000 population cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 77.87 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 66.77 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 57.65 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 53.48 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 52.73 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 49.21 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region:  32.6 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 18.53 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region – Northern: 14.67 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (> 4.8 – 10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region – Southern: 7.88 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 355 Alaska residents, 192 are male, 158 are female, and five are unknown. 26 are under the age of 10; 29 are aged 10-19; 65 are aged 20-29; 90 are aged 30-39; 50 are aged 40-49; 50 are aged 50-59; 34 are aged 60-69; six are aged 70-79 and five are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 943 hospitalizations and 196 deaths, with 13 new hospitalizations and three new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the individuals who died. 

Three deaths were recent:

• A female Anchorage resident in her 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 60s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 80s

There are currently 106 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 111 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Fifteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 10.6%.

TESTING – A total of 1,222,027 tests have been conducted, with 26,037 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.91%. 

TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are arriving in 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: Cases reported to the Section of Epidemiology are increasing. 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. Because of the number of reports being received, there have been delays in getting reports entered and counted. Extra personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the Hub. Daily case counts seem likely to remain at this level or higher for the near future.

This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 22 that posted at noon today on the Alaska Coronavirus Response 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.

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