Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Oct. 31, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020

DHSS today announced one death and 447 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 440 are residents in: Anchorage (229), Fairbanks (35), Bethel Census Area (23), Kenai (20), Chevak (14), Wasilla (12), Juneau (11),  Bethel (10), Soldotna (10), Eagle River (8), Kodiak (8), Palmer (8), Kotzebue (5), Chugiak (4), Nome Census Area (4), North Pole (4), Sterling (4), Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula boroughs (3), Nikiski (3), Sitka (3), Homer (2), Hooper Bay (2),  Northwest Arctic Borough (2), Utqiaġvik (2), Yukon-Kokukuk Census Area (2) and one each in Anchor Point, Delta Junction, Douglas, Girdwood, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Kenai Peninsula North, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Seward, Tok, Valdez and Willow.  

Seven new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Anchorage: three with purpose under investigation
• Dillingham: one with purpose under investigation   
• Bristol Bay and Lake and Peninsula boroughs combined: one with purpose under investigation
• Fairbanks: one in 'other industry'
• Unknown: One with a location and purpose under investigation

Three resident cases were moved to nonresident cases through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 15,274  and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,081.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 43.14 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: 119.45 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 51.91 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 42.71 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 40.4 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 35.41 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 34.19 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 28.14 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 24.98 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 16.81 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 8.03 cases per 100,000

Low (<5 cases/100,000)

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

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 440 Alaska residents, 241 are male, 197 are female and two are unknown. 27 are under the age of 10; 101 are aged 10-19; 91 are aged 20-29; 65 are aged 30-39; 54 are aged 40-49; 47 are aged 50-59; 38 are aged 60-69; 12 are aged 70-79 and five are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 441 hospitalizations and 82 deaths, with 11 new hospitalizations and one new death reported yesterday. The individual who died was a male resident of Anchorage in his 70s. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

Individuals who no longer require isolation (recovered cases) total 6,452. 

There are currently 76 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 18 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 94 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 8.73%.

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 604,207 tests have been conducted, with 20,115 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 7.3%.

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.

TEXT NOTIFICATIONS – DHSS is upgrading our subscription to GovDelivery. During this transition, there may be a disruption in service for text notifications. These notifications will continue to be received by email.

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. 30 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