On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Social Services announced two deaths of Alaska residents and 374 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 368 were residents in: Anchorage (113), Wasilla (69), Eagle River (29), Fairbanks (23), Palmer (25), Bethel Census Area (19), Bethel (14), Kodiak (12), Utqiaġvik (8), Cordova (5), Juneau (5), Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Chugach (5), Chugiak (4), North Pole (4), Soldotna (4), Chevak (3), Ketchikan (3), North Slope Borough (3), Big Lake (2), Dillingham Census Area (2), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Unalaska (2), Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River (2), and one each in Kenai, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Nikiski, Nome, Nome Census Area, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Tok, Willow and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.
Six new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:
- Anchorage: two with purposes under investigation
- Soldotna: one with purpose under investigation
- Locations under investigation: three with purposes under investigation
Seventeen resident cases and six nonresident case were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 44,966 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,517.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 37.89 cases per 100,000.
High (>10 cases/100,000)
- YK-Delta Region: 70.58 cases per 100,000
- Matanuska-Susitna Region: 46.77 cases per 100,000
- Southwest Region: 43.75 cases per 100,000
- Anchorage Municipality: 42.64 cases per 100,000
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: 32.55 cases per 100,000
- Fairbanks North Star Borough: 32.4 cases per 100,000
- Northwest Region: 29.94 cases per 100,000
- Other Interior Region: 22.54 cases per 100,000
- Juneau City and Borough: 13.85 cases per 100,000
Intermediate (> 4.8 – 10 cases/100,000)
- Other Southeast Region – Northern: 9.78 cases per 100,000
- Other Southeast Region – Southern: 7.17 cases per 100,000
CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 368 Alaska residents, 177 are male, 186 are female and five are unknown. 27 are under the age of 10; 45 are aged 10-19; 83 are aged 20-29; 67 are aged 30-39; 51 are aged 40-49; 51 are aged 50-59; 32 are aged 60-69; seven are aged 70-79 and five are aged 80 or older.
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 997 hospitalizations and 202 deaths, with 13 new hospitalizations and two new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.
Both deaths were recent:
- A female Kodiak resident in her 70s
- A male Soldotna resident in his 70s
There are currently 71 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and four additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 75 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Ten of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 8.3%.
TESTING – A total of 1,267,092 tests have been conducted, with 19,697 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.82%.
According to the Department of Health and Social Services, there was 12,478 COVID-19 Pfizer vaccinations given and 793 COVID-19 Moderna vaccinations that were given. That totals 13,271 total COVID-19 vaccinations given as of 12/28. Supply is very limited at this time. Most of the people who may currently receive the vaccine are hospital based healthcare workers. Vaccine will be available to more groups of people over time.
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 Dec. 29 that posted at noon today on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub. 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.
