Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Oct. 29, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020

DHSS today announced six new deaths and 355 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 349 are residents in: Anchorage (129), Wasilla (44), Eagle River (20), Palmer (20), Soldotna (15), Kenai (14), Chevak (13), Kodiak (13), Bethel Census Area (11), Fairbanks (11), Juneau (7), Chugiak (5), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), Sterling (5), Delta Junction (4), North Pole (4), Utqiaġvik (4), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (4), Bethel (3), Ketchikan (3), Hooper Bay (2), Petersburg (2), Sitka (2) and one each in Aleutians West Census Area, Big Lake, Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula boroughs, Homer, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Mat-Su Borough, Meadow Lakes, Nikiski and SE Fairbanks Census Area.

Six new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Fairbanks: four with purpose under investigation
• Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation   
• Wasilla: one with purpose under investigation   

Ten resident and two nonresident cases were added to the data dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 14,456 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,066.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 39.4 per 100,000. Regional alert levels are noted below:

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 107.23 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 46.14 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 37.45 per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 36.19 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 34.39 per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 33.07 per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 27.11 per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 26.13 per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 15.82 per 100,000

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 8.38 per 100,000

Low (<5 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 3.58 per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 349 Alaska residents, 191 are male and 158 are female. 34 are under the age of 10; 43 are aged 10-19; 42 are aged 20-29; 60 are aged 30-39; 68 are aged 40-49; 47 are aged 50-59; 36 are aged 60-69; 16 are aged 70-79 and three are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 425 hospitalizations and 77 deaths, with 12 new hospitalizations and six new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died.

One death occurred recently:

• A male Anchorage resident in his 40s

Five deaths were identified during the standard death certificate review:

• A female Fairbanks resident in her 80s
• A female Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area resident in her 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 80s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s who died out of state

Individuals who no longer require isolation (recovered cases) total 6,447. 

There are currently 67 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 22 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 89 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators.

TESTING – A total of 584,268 tests have been conducted, with 13,456 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 8.1%.

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. 28 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