The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reported nearly 400 new coronavirus cases, 28 deaths, due to a backlog of data, and 142 hospitalizations in the data update on Tuesday. Of the 388 cases reported, 386 were resident cases, and two were nonresident cases. Across the Kenai Peninsula, Homer reported 5 cases, Soldotna 4, Kenai 2, Kenai Peninsula Borough North 1, Kenai Peninsula Borough South 1, Nikiski 1 and Sterling 1.
There are 23 new resident hospitalizations and 28 resident deaths reported on Tuesday, including a male resident of Homer age 80 or older and a male resident of Soldotna in his 60s, but the DHSS states that the large batch of COVID-19 deaths, like Monday’s report, occurred from August through October, with the most fatalities occurring in October.
There are currently 142 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 147 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 13.1%. Central Peninsula Hospital published a graphic on Monday indicating that they won’t be updating the daily count graphic unless the numbers of COVID-19 patients increases above the threshold.
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 532.9 but has incrementally been going down since the case surge over a month ago. For boroughs and census areas: 25 areas are at the high alert level, including the Kenai Peninsula Region.
59% of Alaskans aged 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose. 54% of Alaskans aged 5 and older have been fully vaccinated. 45% of the Kenai Peninsula Region are fully vaccinated.
NOTE – 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. Alert levels are provided to show trends and patterns over time as there can be substantial day-to-day variation in reporting of cases to DHSS. Alert levels show how widespread the virus is in a community relative to its population size and are a good tool to determine weekly trends for specific geographic areas.
