On Thursday, the Department of Health and Social Services announced three deaths of Alaska residents and 338 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 334 were residents in: Anchorage (142), Wasilla (36), Northwest Arctic Borough (30), Fairbanks (29), Palmer (24), North Pole (11), Bethel (10), Kusilvak Census Area (9), Eagle River (6), Kodiak (6), Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River (4), Soldotna (3), Dillingham Census Area (2), Girdwood (2), Kenai (2), Petersburg (2), Sterling (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2), and one each in Bethel Census Area, Big Lake, Chugiak, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Homer, Hooper Bay, Kenai Peninsula Borough – North, Ketchikan, North Slope Borough, Seward, Unalaska, and Willow.
Four new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:
- Anchorage: two with purpose under investigation
- Northwest Arctic Borough: one with purpose mining
- Locations under investigation: one with purpose under investigation
Eight resident cases and one nonresident case were subtracted from the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 47,660 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,568.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 36.68 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Three regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission.
High (>10 cases/100,000)
- YK-Delta Region: 145.78 cases per 100,000
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 43.75 cases per 100,000
- Anchorage Municipality: 36.83 cases per 100,000
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 36.8 cases per 100,000
- Northwest Region: 33.85 cases per 100,000
- Southwest Region: 32.38 cases per 100,000
- Other Interior Region: 19.5 cases per 100,000
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: 18.97 cases per 100,000
Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 8.96 cases per 100,000
- Juneau City and Borough: 8.71 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 7.33 cases per 100,000
CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 334 Alaska residents, 162 are male, 170 are female and two are unknown. 19 are under the age of 10; 38 are aged 10-19; 72 are aged 20-29; 70 are aged 30-39; 45 are aged 40-49; 40 are aged 50-59; 30 are aged 60-69; 13 are aged 70-79 and seven are aged 80 or older.
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,064 hospitalizations and 222 deaths, with ten new hospitalizations and three new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died.
All deaths were recent:
- A female Anchorage resident in her 50s
- A female Kusilvak Census Area resident in her 50s
- A female Bethel Census Area resident in her 50s
There are currently 84 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 89 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Eight of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 9.3%.
TESTING – A total of 1,326,542 tests have been conducted, with 27,709 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.59%.
COVID-19 VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 20,775 dose #1 COVID-19 vaccinations given in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard.
TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are being distributed throughout Alaska but we all still need to maintain our COVID-19 protective measures to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy: coronavirus.dhss.alaska.gov
Notes: Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause delays in getting reports entered and counted. Extra personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub.
This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 6. 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, as is the default on the dashboard. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit data.coronavirus.alaska.gov; weekly and daily case summaries are archived at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/communications.aspx#updates.