OVERVIEW – 647 new cases | 4 deaths | 127 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 53.5% of Alaskans 12+ vaccinated
TAKE ACTION – Choosing to get vaccinated is the single most important action you can take to protect yourself and your community and to reopen our economy. Learn more about the CDC’s recommendations for fully vaccinated people, including their recent change to masking guidance, at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html.
VACCINATIONS – 59.5% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.
53.5% of Alaskans 12 and older have been fully vaccinated. The higher the vaccination rate, the more protected community members are from COVID-19. See below for percentages of all fully vaccinated Alaskans age 12 and older by region:
- Juneau Region: 75.6%
- YK-Delta Region: 71%
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 70.1%
- Southwest Region: 64%
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 62.8%
- Northwest Region: 58.1%
- Anchorage Region: 55.5%
- Other Interior Region: 54.6%
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 47.3%
- Kenai Peninsula Region: 45.5%
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 37.6%
For more information about vaccines, visit covidvax.alaska.gov.
CASES – DHSS today announced four deaths of Alaska residents and 647 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 617 were residents in: Anchorage (171), Wasilla (42), Nome Census Area (41), Soldotna (29), Fairbanks (27), Palmer (27), Haines (21), Juneau (21), Sitka (21), Ketchikan (20), Kodiak (20), Homer (18), Eagle River (15), Kenai (15), Dillingham Census Area (14), Seward (11), Northwest Arctic Borough (10), Kotzebue (9), Valdez (7), Bethel (6), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (6), Chugiak (5), North Pole (5), Mat-Su Borough (4), Nikiski (4), North Slope Borough (4), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (4), Craig (3), Nome (3), Wrangell (3), Anchor Point (2), Bethel Census Area (2), Big Lake (2), Chugach Census Area (2), Cordova (2), Denali Borough (2), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough – South (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2), Skagway (2), Utqiaġvik (2), and one each in Aleutians West Census Area, Bristol Bay/Lake and Peninsula, Copper River Census Area, Girdwood, Kenai Peninsula Borough – North, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Metlakatla, Sterling, and Tok.
30 new nonresident cases were identified in:
- Bristol Bay/ Lake and Peninsula: 2 in seafood, 4 with purposes under investigation
- Anchorage: 4 with purposes under investigation
- Wasilla: 3 with purposes under investigation
- Homer: 2 with purposes under investigation
- Soldotna: 2 with purposes under investigation
- Fairbanks: 1 with purpose under investigation
- Kodiak: 1 with purpose under investigation
- Palmer: 1 with purpose under investigation
- Petersburg: 1 with purpose under investigation
- Sitka: 1 with purpose under investigation
- Wrangell: 1 with purpose under investigation
- Locations under investigation: 7 with purposes under investigation
Sixteen resident cases and two nonresident cases were added to the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 78,407 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,595.
HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,871 resident hospitalizations and 404 resident deaths, with 13 new hospitalizations and four new Alaska resident deaths reported yesterday.
All four deaths were recent:
- Male Anchorage resident in his 70s
- Male Anchorage resident in his 60s
- Male Anchorage resident in his 50s
- Male Palmer resident in his 60s
Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.
There are currently 127 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 129 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty-one of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 11.5%.
TESTING – A total of 2,619,092 tests have been conducted, with 33,185 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 7.45%.
Variants of concern situation summary
Alpha (B.1.1.7) – 11 added since last report
- Proportion is appreciably declining and is less than 2% of sequenced cases in Alaska. To date, we have detected 450 cases across the state.
Gamma (P.1) – one added since last report
- To date, we have detected 74 cases across the state.
Delta (B.1.617.2-like) – 299 added since last report
- To date, we have detected 876 cases in multiple locations across the state. Accounts for almost all newly detected cases.
As of Aug. 17, the total number of Alpha (B.1.1.7) cases is 450; Gamma (P.1) cases is 74; and Delta (B.1.617.2-like) cases is 876. The weekly genomic surveillance report is online at: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/siteassets/pages/humancov/AKSeqCon_GenomicSituationReport.pdf.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level – based on the reported number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days – is high (red) at 376.9. For boroughs and census areas: 23 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), 2 areas are at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), 1 area is at the moderate alert level (>10-49.99) and 2 areas are at the low alert level (0-9.99).
Find alert levels for individual boroughs and census areas using the alert levels map on the cases dashboard at experience.arcgis.com/experience/2d19dc2b5c7e4b399ff6495a8950493d/
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. 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.
