Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Oct. 18, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020

DHSS today announced 215 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 211 are residents in: Anchorage (83), Fairbanks (27), Wasilla (14), Bethel Census Area (12), Bethel (7), North Pole (6), Palmer (6), Utqiaġvik (6), Eagle River (5), Juneau (5), Soldotna (5), Chugiak (4), Kotzebue (4), Northwest Arctic Borough (4), Homer (3), Kenai (3), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (3), Chevak (2), Delta Junction (2), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2) and one each in Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula boroughs, Girdwood, Kenai Peninsula Borough North, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Nikiski and Seward.

Four new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: three with purposes still under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: one in ‘Oil North Slope’ industry

Nine resident cases have been added to the data dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 10,980 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,036.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000 population, is high at 24.3 per 100,000. Regional alert levels are noted below:

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Northwest Region: 39.06 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 37.19 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 33.29 per 100,000 population
• Anchorage Municipality: 32.23 cases per 100,000 population
• Other Interior Region: 17.06 per 100,000 population
• Juneau City and Borough: 14.07 per 100,000 population
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 11.99 per 100,000 population
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 11.48 per 100,000 population

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Southwest Region: 7.17 per 100,000 population

Low (<5 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 4.3 per 100,000 population
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 2.44 per 100,000 population

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 211 Alaska residents, 119 are male and 92 are female. Twelve are under the age of 10; 25 are aged 10-19; 49 are aged 20-29; 36 are aged 30-39; 25 are aged 40-49; 31 are aged 50-59; 20 are aged 60-69; 12 are aged 70-79 and one is aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 361 hospitalizations and 67 deaths, with no new recent deaths reported. Individuals who no longer require isolation (recovered cases) total 5,853.

There are currently 45 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 28 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 73 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Eleven of these patients are on ventilators.

TESTING – A total of 532,711 tests have been conducted, with 12,299 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.78%.

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. Extra personnel will continue to 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.

This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 17 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.