Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Oct. 10, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020

DHSS today announced 232 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 230 are residents in 29 communities: Anchorage (128), Fairbanks (24), Eagle River (11), Wasilla (8), North Pole (7), Palmer (7), Kenai (6), Bethel (4), Juneau (4), Homer (3), Kotzebue (3), Chugiak (2), Dillingham (2), Fritz Creek (2), Healy (2), Nome Census Area (2), Northwest Arctic Borough (2), Sterling (2) and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Bethel Census Area, Cordova, Girdwood, Ketchikan, Kusilvak Census Area, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Seward, Soldotna, Willow and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

Two new nonresident cases, both with purposes still under investigation, were identified in Anchorage (1) and Soldotna (1). 

Twenty resident cases and one nonresident case have been added to the data dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 9,431 and the total number of nonresident cases to 997. The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate for the past 14 days, is high.

Of the 230 Alaska residents, 112 are male and 116 are female. 11 are under the age of 10; 20 are aged 10-19; 42 are aged 20-29; 51 are aged 30-39; 38 are aged 40-49; 32 are aged 50-59; 28 are aged 60-69; seven are aged 70-79 and one is aged 80 or older.

There have been a total of 319 hospitalizations and 60 deaths, with no new deaths reported yesterday. Individuals who no longer require isolation (recovered cases) total 5,136.

There are currently 44 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 22 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 66 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Five of these patients are on ventilators. Please note that dashboard is currently showing incorrect hospitalization numbers but will be corrected soon. For current hospitalization numbers, please refer to Table 6 in the Data Summary Tables. 

A total of 499,253 tests have been conducted, with 9,832 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.52%.

Notes: Cases reported to the Section of Epidemiology are increasing. 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. Because of the number of reports being received, it may take a day or two after receipt to get a report entered and counted. Today’s high daily case count is evidence of extra personnel and focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the Hub. Daily case counts in the near future seem likely to remain at this level or higher based on reports currently being processed. 

This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on October 9 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. To view more data visit: data.coronavirus.alaska.gov.