Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Oct. 23, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

DHSS today announced 242 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 239 are residents in: Anchorage (143), Wasilla (24), Fairbanks (21), Juneau (6), Kenai (7), Palmer (6), Chugiak (5), Bethel Census Area (4), Eagle River (3), Bethel (2), Chevak (2), Kotzebue (2), Soldotna (2), one each in Big Lake, Douglas, Homer, Kodiak, Kusilvak Census Area, Nome Census Area, North Pole, Sterling, Sutton-Alpine and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area; two cases have locations under investigation.

Three new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Anchorage: one in ‘other industry’
• Fairbanks: one in mining
• One location and purpose under investigation

42 resident cases were added to the data dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 12,118 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,043.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 27.64 per 100,000. Regional alert levels are noted below:

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 68.14 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 36.32 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 35.93 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 28.15 per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 19.19 per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 17.26 per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 16.3 per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 16.17 per 100,000

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Southwest Region: 7.91 per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 5.24 per 100,000

Low (<5 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 2.87 per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 239 Alaska residents, 119 are male and 120 are female. Six are under the age of 10; 15 are aged 10-19; 48 are aged 20-29; 39 are aged 30-39; 31 are aged 40-49; 40 are aged 50-59; 34 are aged 60-69; 20 are aged 70-79 and six are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 385 hospitalizations and 68 deaths, with seven new hospitalizations and no new deaths reported. Individuals who no longer require isolation (recovered cases) total 6,270.

There are currently 59 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 0 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 59 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Seven of these patients are on ventilators.

TESTING – A total of 552,746 tests have been conducted, with 7,331 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 5.25%.

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. 22 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.