The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reports 1,870 new COVID-19 cases in the data update on Friday from Wednesday through Thursday. 18 new Alaska resident hospitalizations were reported. Newly accounted COVID-19 deaths are reported on Wednesdays.
There are currently 105 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and four additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 109 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Nine of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 10.5%.
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 972.8. For boroughs and census areas: 28 areas are at the high alert level.
Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Anne Zink, in a Wednesday COVID-19 Science ECHO said:
“You can see overall in Alaska we’ve had 36% decrease in cases this week compared to the week before. Again, you can look at the week-to-week variation. Despite that there are still a lot of cases in Alaska. The state overall is a red. We’ve had just over 220,000 Alaskans have tested positive for COVID-19. Here you can look at the hospitalization data and you can see, again, these different surges at different times because this is starting to come down and 12.9% of people in the hospital are because of COVID-19.”
The DHSS notes that protective measures against the Omicron variant remain the same as for the other COVID variants. Layering protective measures, including masking, handwashing, physical distancing, and testing help to reduce transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Using a self-test before and after travel and large gatherings is advised.
