Alaska has nearly 400 new coronavirus cases. The state Department of Health and Social Services reported 380 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday. A total of 124 people are currently hospitalized with the virus in Alaska. No new deaths were reported yesterday. That number includes 360 residents.
Across the Kenai Peninsula, Soldotna reported 8 cases, Kenai 6, Homer 4, Kenai Peninsula Borough South 4, Seward 3, Anchor Point 2, Kenai Peninsula Borough North 2, and Sterling 2. There also were 20 nonresident cases identified including 2 in Soldotna and 1 in Ninilchik.
Chief of Alaska Section of Epidemiology at the state Department of Health and Social Services, Dr. Joe McLaughlin:
“Almost all of Alaska is red. Not every borough or census area is red. We have some in orange and, actually some in the blue there, but most of the state is in the red again. This is, unfortunately, pretty much all due to the delta variant. You are going to see some fluctuation but that’s generally where we’ve been in the 2 to 300 cases per day now with the delta. Alaska versus the U.S. you can see that what’s happening in the U.S. is basically kind of what’s happening in Alaska. We have most recently had this very sizeable increase in cases and, again, most of this is attributable to the delta variant.”
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 235.6. For boroughs and census areas: 22 areas are at the high alert level. 58.8% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received their first vaccine dose. 53% of Alaskans 12 and older have been fully vaccinated. 45% of the Kenai Peninsula Region are considered fully vaccinated.