As confirmed by the Department of Health and Social Services, COVID-19 cases are on the rise. The number of identified cases of COVID-19 in Alaska sharply increased last week compared to the previous week. This is the fifth week in a row of week-over-week increases and was larger than increases in recent weeks.
Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer, spoke to Alaska’s News Source:
“More red. More orange. Not where we want to be in this state, but we are following the trend of the national average with the really significant increase in number of cases overall. So when we look at deaths from COVID, from January 1st through July 10th, 98% of all of our deaths are in unvaccinated individuals.”
State Epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin spoke at the Alaska Public Health Science ECHO on Wednesday:
“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.”
46.6% of the Kenai Peninsula Borough is listed as receiving one or more dose of the vaccine. Not only is the state listed as being in the red high alert status, but so is the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
The Department of Health and Social Services reports that 882 cases were reported in Alaskans last week, a 140% increase from the week before. Increases in cases were widely distributed across Alaska, with notable increases in Anchorage, Sitka, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Chugach Census Area, Juneau, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and Kodiak Island Borough. The number of Alaskans hospitalized with COVID-19 is increasing as well. The total number of reported nonresident cases increased by 54 this week for a total of 3,008.
