(SitNews) - OVERVIEW – 1,954 new cases | 18 deaths | 44 hospitalizations | 65% of Alaskans 5+ vaccinated

WEEKLY UPDATE - DHSS updates all COVID-19 dashboards weekly on Wednesdays. For the latest on COVID-19 in Alaska, read the DHSS weekly update and DHSS data summaries: dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/clinicalupdate.aspx

Notes:

• Layering protective measures, including vaccination, masking, ventilation, handwashing, physical distancing, testing, and timely treatment help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
• The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) encourages Alaskans to talk with a health care provider or call 907-646-3322 about getting the COVID-19 vaccine and getting boosted when eligible.
• Medications that fight COVID-19 are widely available, and most Alaskans are eligible. If you get COVID, don't wait till you get worse: call a health care provider as soon as possible about treatment options. Learn more at covidrx.alaska.gov.

VACCINATIONS – These rates cover all Alaskan residents including those reported by the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration (DoD/VA).

72.1% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

65% of Alaskans 5 and older have been fully vaccinated. The higher the vaccination rate, the more protected community members are from COVID-19. See below for percentages of all fully vaccinated Alaskans ages 5 and older by region.

• Juneau Region: 80.6%
• Y-K Delta Region: 78%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 75.2%
• Anchorage Region: 71.6%
• Southwest Region: 70.1%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 68.4%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 67%
• Northwest Region: 63%
• Other Interior Region: 60.3%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 50.4%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 43.2%

CASES – DHSS today announced 1,954 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.

1,675 were residents of: Aleutians East Borough (1), Anchor Point (3), Anchorage (575), Bethel (13), Bethel Census Area (26), Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (5), Chevak (2), Chugach Census Area (1), Chugiak (6), Copper River Census Area (2), Cordova (5), Delta Junction (2), Denali Borough (6), Dillingham (3), Dillingham Census Area (2), Eagle River (56), Ester (2), Fairbanks (213), Fairbanks North Star Borough (16), Fritz Creek (1), Girdwood (2), Greater Palmer Area (36), Greater Wasilla Area (100), Haines (9), Healy (4), Homer (42), Hooper Bay (1), Houston/Big Lake Area (4), Juneau (246), Kenai (28), Kenai Peninsula Borough-North (6), Kenai Peninsula Borough-South (3), Ketchikan (74), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (2), Kodiak (24), Kotzebue (12), Kusilvak Census Area (6), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (6), Metlakatla (5), Nikiski (1), Nome (3), Nome Census Area (2), North Pole (37), North Slope Borough (3), Northwest Arctic Borough (10), Petersburg (3), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Seward (4), Sitka (54), Skagway (24), Soldotna (12), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (1), Sterling (3), Sutton-Alpine (1), Tok (1), Utqia?vik (9), Valdez (4), Willow (1), Wrangell (8), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (24), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (19).

279 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 26 with purpose under investigation
• At sea: 23 with purpose tourism
• Delta Junction: 2 with purpose mining
• Denali Borough: 9 with purpose under investigation
• Fairbanks: 12 with purpose under investigation
• Homer: 6 with purpose under investigation
• Juneau: 9 with purpose tourism, 92 with purpose under investigation
• Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: 3 with purpose tourism, 9 with purpose under investigation
• Kodiak: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Northwest Arctic Borough: 2 with purpose mining
• Palmer: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Petersburg: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 11 with purpose North Slope oil
• Seward: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Sitka: 9 with purpose under investigation
• Skagway Borough: 13 with purpose tourism, 14 with purpose under investigation
• Soldotna: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Unalaska: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Valdez: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon: 3 with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: 27 with purpose under investigation

18 resident cases were subtracted and 14 nonresident case were added to the state's overall totals due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 249,522 and the total number of nonresident cases to 8,517.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,762 resident hospitalizations and 1,252 resident deaths.

8 new Alaska resident hospitalizations and 17 Alaska resident deaths were reported. 1 nonresident death was also reported. Please see this webpage for more information on the process used to report COVID-19 deaths: dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/covid-19/deathcounts.aspx.

The Alaska residents who died were:

• A female resident of Anchorage age 80+
• A female resident of Anchorage age 80+
• A female resident of Anchorage in her 70s
• A female resident of Anchorage in her 60s
• A female resident of Anchorage in her 60s
• A male resident of Copper River Census Area in his 70s
• A female resident of Dillingham age 80+
• A male resident of Homer in his 50s
• A male resident of Ketchikan in his 70s
• A male resident of Ketchikan in his 40s
• A male resident of Matanuska-Susitna Borough age 80+
• A female resident of North Slope Borough in her 50s
• A male resident of Northwest Arctic Borough age 80+
• A female resident of Palmer in her 40s
• A female resident of Petersburg age 80+
• A female resident of Utqia?vik in her 60s
• A male resident of Wasilla in his 70s

Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones.

There are currently 44 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized. 1 of these patients is on a ventilator. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 3.4%.

TESTING – Updates to testing data can now be found on a tab of the cases dashboard: experience.arcgis.com/experience/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074. DHSS is no longer reporting percent positivity or the cumulative number of tests on our dashboard. This is in part because of the increased use in at-home rapid antigen testing, where results are not reported to the State. 

COMMUNITY CASE RATES – We encourage the public and community leaders to continue to be aware of case rates in their area. On the dashboard, the Community Case Rates Map presents the total number of new reported resident cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days for each borough/census area. 

A tab monitoring CDC COVID-19 Community Levels also considers COVID-19 impacts on hospital admissions and hospital beds. CDC looks at the combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days — to determine the COVID-19 Community Level. Learn more here.

The current statewide Community Case Rate — based on the reported number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days — is 229.8. For boroughs and census areas: 6 areas are at >400 cases, 7 areas are at 200-399 cases, 9 areas are at 100-199 cases, 4 areas are at 50-99 cases and 2 areas are at 0-49 cases per 100,000.

Find case rates for individual boroughs and census areas by clicking on the Community Case Rates Map tab on the cases dashboard at experience.arcgis.com/experience/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074/.

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. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the 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. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. Community Case Rates are provided to show trends and patterns over time, as there can be substantial day-to-day variation in reporting of cases to DHSS. Community Case Rates show how widespread the virus is in a community and are a good tool to determine weekly trends for specific geographic areas. 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.




On the Web:

Covid-19 Updates
https://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/covid-19/communications.aspx#updates

Alaska Dept of Health & Social Services
www.dhss.alaska.gov

 

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