Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Oct. 25, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020

DHSS today announced 526 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 520 are residents in: Anchorage (193), Fairbanks (65), Wasilla (49), Juneau (34), Palmer (18), Soldotna (17), Chevak (16), Eagle River (13), Bethel Census Area (11), Kenai (11), North Pole (10), Bethel (9), Kotzebue (8), Utgiagvik (7), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (5), Homer (3), Houston (3), Kenai Peninsula - North (3), Sitka (3), Tok (3), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (3),  Big Lake (2), Chugiak (2), Dillingham (2), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Kodiak (2), Nome Census Area (2), Skagway (2), Sterling (2), Willow (2) and one each in Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula Boroughs, Delta Junction, Dillingham Census Area, Douglas, Girdwood, Healy, Hooper Bay, Kenai Peninsula - South, Ketchikan, Kusilvak Census Area, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Nome, Northwest Arctic Borough, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Seward, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Valdez and Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon. 

Six new nonresident cases were identified yesterday. 

• North Slope Borough: 2 in oil industry 
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 1 in unknown industry
• Unknown location: 3 in unknown industry 

Three resident cases were added to the data dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 13,012 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,052.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 31.76 per 100,000. Regional alert levels are noted below:

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 99.09 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 39.26 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 38.28 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 30.54 per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 22.11 per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 21.29 per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 21.02 per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 21.00 per 100,000

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Southwest Region: 8.4 per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 7.68 per 100,000

Low (<5 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 3.23 per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 520 Alaska residents, 240 are male, 279 are female and one is unknown. 35 are under the age of 10; 52 are aged 10-19; 85 are aged 20-29; 104 are aged 30-39; 77 are aged 40-49; 72 are aged 50-59; 58 are aged 60-69; 29 are aged 70-79 and eight are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 391 hospitalizations and 68 deaths, with two new hospitalizations and no new deaths reported. Individuals who no longer require isolation (recovered cases) total 6,300. 

There are currently 58 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and no additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 58 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Nine of these patients are on ventilators.

TESTING – A total of 559,969 tests have been conducted, with 10,280 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.32%.

HOSPITAL DASHBOARD UPDATES Data discrepancies – The Hospital Data Dashboard provides the total number of COVID-19 positive patients current up to the previous day.  This dashboard is a census of hospitalization counts, that includes patients who tested positive for COVID but were hospitalized for non-COVID related reasons (the Cases Dashboard only reports hospitalizations due to COVID). There was an undercount in the total number of COVID-19 positive patients on the Hospital Dashboard identified on Oct. 22. Once the issue was identified, the data team worked quickly to resolve the error. The corrected data for the total number of COVID-19 confirmed patients hospitalized are noted below:

• Data for Oct. 19 – discrepancy of two for a new total of 40
• Data for Oct. 20 – discrepancy of three for a new total of 44
• Data for Oct. 21 – discrepancy of eight for a new total of 49

Just as with cases, these daily data sources are considered preliminary and subject to change. Data is regularly monitored and data quality procedures are used, however, changes made to the Protect TeleTracking system may have unanticipated impacts on the data. DHSS consistently communicates and collaborates with hospitals on these issues and thanks them for their partnership.

Changes to bed capacity counts – With the recent changeover from using ASHNHA data to the HHS Protect TeleTracking data, neonatal beds (both non-ICU and ICU beds) were included in the bed capacity numbers on the Hospital Dashboard. As a result of this addition, the following changes have been made to provide a more accurate understanding of bed capacity in Alaska:

• On the hospital dashboard, ICU beds have been removed from the Inpatient Bed Capacity counts, which is now labeled as Non-ICU Inpatient Bed Capacity. ICU bed capacity is provided as a separate metric.
• Bed capacity counts for Non-ICU inpatient and ICU beds are now provided for both all patients and adults only. Bed capacity counts for inpatient beds (including ICU beds) for all patients and adults only can still be found in the summary tables.
• The percentage of COVID-19 confirmed patients hospitalized has been added.

Ventilator capacity and the number of patients currently on a ventilator continue to be reported for all ages. All data can be filtered by general acute care and critical access facilities only, as well as by region. Data provided on the COVID-19 Data Response Hub is provided daily by noon, and are current through the previous day.  New data is preliminary and subject to change. More information about the hospital dashboard can be found here.

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. 23 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.