Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Oct. 30, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

DHSS today announced four deaths and 384 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 380 are residents in: Anchorage (175), Wasilla (38), Palmer (22), Soldotna (20), Juneau (17), Eagle River (15), Fairbanks (14), Bethel (12), Kenai (10), Bethel Census Area (8), North Pole (8), Chugiak (5), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (5), Northwest Arctic Borough (3), Sterling (3), Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula boroughs (2), Kotzebue (2), Seward (2), Sitka (2), Utqiaġvik (2), one each in Big Lake, Delta Junction, Dillingham, Girdwood, Haines, Kenai Peninsula North, Kenai Peninsula South, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Mat-Su Borough, Nikiski, Tok, Willow, and two locations under investigation.

Four new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Anchorage: one in ‘other industry’
• Ketchikan: one with purpose under investigation   
• Wasilla: one with purpose under investigation
• One with location and purpose under investigation

One resident and one nonresident case were added to the data dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 14,837 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,071.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 40.76 cases per 100,000. One region on the Alert Level Map is currently not displaying the alert level, however data is still available when clicking on it. The problem should be resolved by early next week; in the meantime, alert level rates can also be found for each region in the following table under the 'case_rate_14' column: https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/alert-level-map-table-resident/data.  

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 108.59 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 48.17 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 40.6 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 39.04 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 33.85 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 32.92 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 28.36 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 26.81 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 14.58 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 7.33 cases per 100,000

Low (<5 cases/100,000)

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

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 380 Alaska residents, 172 are male, 207 are female and one is unknown. 22 are under the age of 10; 37 are aged 10-19; 58 are aged 20-29; 72 are aged 30-39; 67 are aged 40-49; 40 are aged 50-59; 46 are aged 60-69; 25 are aged 70-79 and 13 are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 430 hospitalizations and 81 deaths, with five new hospitalizations and four new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died.

Three deaths occurred recently:

• A male Anchorage resident in his 80s
• A male Matanuska-Susitna Borough resident in his 80s
• A female SE Fairbanks Census Area resident in her 60s

One death was identified during the standard death certificate review:

• A female Anchorage resident in her 90s

Individuals who no longer require isolation (recovered cases) total 6,449. 

There are currently 72 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 18 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 90 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 8.11%.

Hospital bed capacity – Please note, the calculations used to display the hospital bed capacity on the hospital dashboard, for both non-ICU inpatient and ICU beds, reflect the number of beds occupied and the total beds that are staffed. This means the total number of beds for both non-ICU inpatient and ICU bed capacity will fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes.

TESTING – A total of 586,323 tests have been conducted, with 9,527 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 8.54%.

MODELING APP – The modeling application is intermittently down and may experience periodic disruptions through early next week as the data team troubleshoots and resolves the problem. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

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 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. 29 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. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit: data.coronavirus.alaska.gov