Alaska is reporting over 400 new coronavirus cases. The state Department of Health and Social Services confirmed 427 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, including 423 resident cases and four nonresident cases. Across the Kenai Peninsula, Anchor Point reported 8 cases, Soldotna 6, Kenai 5, Sterling 3, Homer 2, Kenai Peninsula Borough North 1, and Kenai Peninsula Borough South 1.
There have been a total of 2,961 resident hospitalizations and 812 resident deaths. 37 new resident hospitalizations and two Alaska resident deaths were reported. The two Alaska residents who died were a female resident of Fairbanks in her 60s and a male resident of Wasilla in his 40s.
There are currently 148 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and six additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 154 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Eighteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 13.1%.
Dr. Anne Zink says that COVID-19 cases are going down:
“So we continue to have a lot of cases in the state, but we are coming down and, unfortunately, other places are coming up. You can see, we are no longer the number one state in the nation with number of cases. Nationally they’re ranking us a 34% decrease. There’s a couple of different reasons why this is calculated slightly differently, you can see hospitalizations and deaths. Alaska is right on the cusp of moving to that little bit lighter blue at 375 cases per 100,000, that’s exactly where we’re at. Hoping to continue to see that in a downward projection, although we still have quite a few cases.”
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 374.3. For boroughs and census areas: 23 areas are at the high alert level.
60% of Alaskans aged 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose. 55% of Alaskans aged 5 and older have been fully vaccinated. 46% of the Kenai Peninsula Region are fully vaccinated.