On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Social Services announced two deaths of Alaska residents and 353 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 342 were residents in: Anchorage (112), Fairbanks (55), Wasilla (43), Eagle River (11), Utqiaġvik (10), Chugiak (9), Palmer (9), Kodiak (8), Bethel (7), Juneau (7), Kotzebue (7), North Pole (7), Kenai (6), Unalaska (6), Ketchikan (5), Kusilvak Census Area (5), Soldotna (4), Big Lake (3), Fairbanks North Star Borough (3), Petersburg (3), Delta Junction (2), Girdwood (2), Nikiski (2), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Willow (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2) and one each in Bethel Census Area, Cordova, Dillingham Census Area, Homer, Houston, Kenai Peninsula Borough North, Sitka, Sterling, Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Chugach and Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River.
Eleven new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:
- Yakutat/Hoonah-Angoon: four in mining industry
- Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation
- Locations under investigation: six with purposes under investigation
Fourteen resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 47,334 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,565.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 36.09 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Two regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission.
High (>10 cases/100,000)
- YK-Delta Region: 142.8 cases per 100,000
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 42.95 cases per 100,000
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 36.12 cases per 100,000
- Anchorage Municipality: 35.83 cases per 100,000
- Southwest Region: 33.87 cases per 100,000
- Northwest Region: 28.64 cases per 100,000
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: 20.56 cases per 100,000
- Other Interior Region: 20.11 cases per 100,000
- Juneau City and Borough: 11.17 cases per 100,000
Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 8.6 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 7.68 cases per 100,000
CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 342 Alaska residents, 189 are male, 149 are female and four are unknown. 29 are under the age of 10; 43 are aged 10-19; 82 are aged 20-29; 72 are aged 30-39; 32 are aged 40-49; 32 are aged 50-59; 35 are aged 60-69; 12 are aged 70-79 and five are aged 80 or older.
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,054 hospitalizations and 219 deaths, with 18 new hospitalizations and two new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died.
Both deaths were recent:
- A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
- A male Anchorage resident in his 60s
There are currently 94 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and seven additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 101 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 10.2%.
TESTING – A total of 1,311,015 tests have been conducted, with 24,868 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.99%.
COVID-19 VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 18,266 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. 5. 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.