Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Nov. 21, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020

DHSS today announced one new death and 676 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 670 are residents in: Anchorage (301), Fairbanks (66), Soldotna (29), Eagle River (24), Bethel Census Area (22), Bethel (21), North Pole (21), Wasilla (21), Homer (18), Palmer (14), Delta Junction (11), Kotzebue (11), Seward (11), Kodiak (10), Kenai (9), Chugiak (8), Juneau (8), Sitka (8), Fairbanks North Star Borough (7), Kusilvak Census Area (7), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), Kenai Peninsula Borough South (5), Dillingham (4), Nome (4), SE Fairbanks Census Area (3), Sterling (3), Anchor Point (2), Fritz Creek (2), Kodiak Island Borough (2), Nikiski (2), Utqiaġvik (2), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (2) and one each in Douglas, Ketchikan, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Skagway, Tok, Willow and a location under investigation.

Six new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Anchorage: two with purposes under investigation
• Locations under investigation: four with purposes under investigation

Five resident cases were added to and one nonresident case was removed from the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 26,044 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,180.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 76.0 cases per 100,000. All regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 148.77 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 107.86 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 95.46 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 57.58 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 46.25 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 45.05 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 42.48 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 33.12 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 28.81 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 23.4 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 22.22 cases per 100,000

MODELING APP – The modeling application, which provides the Projected Epidemiological Curve, Reproductive Number and Average Daily Rate, is temporarily unavailable while it’s being revised to take into account the changes to onset date for cases and removal of active and recovered cases.

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 670 Alaska residents, 343 are male, 322 are female and five are unknown. 53 are under the age of 10; 79 are aged 10-19; 138 are aged 20-29; 121 are aged 30-39; 96 are aged 40-49; 83 are aged 50-59; 61 are aged 60-69; 28 are aged 70-79, and 11 are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 600 hospitalizations and 101 deaths, with six new hospitalizations and one new death reported yesterday. The individual who died was an Anchorage male resident in his 60s. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

There are currently 116 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 13 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 129 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Fourteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 11.5%.

TESTING – A total of 918,745 tests have been conducted, with 26,321 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 8.99%. 

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 seem likely to remain at this level or higher for the near future.

This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 20 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.