Alaska is reporting one new coronavirus death along with nearly 500 new cases of the virus. The state Department of Health and Social Services confirmed the COVID-19 death yesterday of a woman in her 70s from Prince of Wales-Hyder. Her death raises Alaska’s death toll from the virus to 375 residents. The DHSS reported 472 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday from the previous two days, including 435 resident cases and 37 nonresident cases.
Across the Kenai Peninsula, Homer reported 22 additional cases, Soldotna with 14, Seward with 10, Kenai with 6, Kenai Peninsula Borough North with 6, Sterling with 4, Kenai Peninsula Borough South with 3, and Anchor Point with 2.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin spoke at the Alaska Public Health Science ECHO yesterday:
“As you can see on the left, we’re starting to see more and more Alaska turn red, unfortunately, and this is primarily due to a couple of factors. Number 1, the delta variant is now the predominant strain in Alaska and we know that the delta variant is much more transmissible than other variants. It’s thought to be about 50% more transmissible than the alpha variant that emerged out of the U.K. and remember that alpha variant is considered to be about 50% more transmissible than the original wild strain. This delta variant is very, very, transmissible. Here, you can see that, unfortunately, the state of Alaska, as a whole, popped up into the red zone. That happened on July 16th.”
The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate is high at 16.2 cases per 100,000. The Kenai Peninsula Borough is also in the high category at 25.60 cases per 100,000.
52% of Alaskans aged 12 and older have been fully vaccinated whereas 57% of Alaskans aged 12 and up have received their first vaccine dose. 44% of the Kenai Peninsula Region is listed as fully vaccinated.
The entire Alaska Public Health Science ECHO can be seen below:
