Governor Mike Dunleavy was joined by several members of his cabinet, Alaska’s Public Health Director, and the CEO of the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation for a press conference on matters related to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The conference took place Tuesday evening.
The Governor started by saying that despite the growth of cases, there are no alarms and no surprises when it comes to Alaska’s current number of COVID-19 cases: “Our numbers, in many respects, most respects actually, are still very, very low. Our cases have gone up. There are a couple of reasons why we believe that’s happened. One is certainly that our testing has gone up. However, we do believe that the virus is spreading in Alaska. With more mixing, with more folks getting out again, it’s just understandable that this is going to happen. We never said that we were not going to have the virus in Alaska. Remember what the goal was in the beginning, it was to ask Alaskans to help us buy time so we could stand up our health care system, and Alaskans did a tremendous job. In my opinion, looking at the numbers and talking with others, probably the best in the country. We’re still there, but we also said the numbers would grow.”
He also noted that the hospitalization rate is very low, discussing that ventilator and bed capacity are in great shape in Alaska. Governor Dunleavy said that the state’s hospitalization rate, as a result of the virus, is 9 out of every 1,000 people – while the national rate is 98 out of 1,000 people. Despite the number of people entering Alaska increasing, the important metrics remain in good shape, according to the Governor.
Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Anne Zink, discussed the state of the outbreak in the Kenai Peninsula: “Right now, the Kenai Peninsula has 3.9 average new cases per 100,000 people, averaged over the past 14 days. That’s followed by Fairbanks and Anchorage. Stateside, we’re at about 2.4. This will be information that will be updated daily and will be on our website, as well, so people can see your region and what the outbreak looks like across your regions.”
Governor Dunleavy emphasized that the disease is not impacting the majority of Alaskans, but that the state is addressing clusters as they pop up.
He concluded by advocating for the continued use of masks in Alaska, asking Alaskans to think of others. He implored residents to remember that anyone could either be immunocompromised or have someone immunocompromised at home, including a child.
