Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Nov. 26, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020

DHSS today announced four new deaths and 563 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 557 were residents in:  Anchorage (227), Homer (44), Kenai (42), Wasilla (40), Soldotna (38), Bethel Census Area (18), Fairbanks (16), Eagle River (13), Delta Junction (11), Kodiak (10), Juneau (10), Nikiski (9), Palmer (9), Chugiak (8), Ketchikan (6), Bethel (5), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), North Pole (5), Utqiaġvik (5), Girdwood (4), Anchor Point (3), Kusilvak Census Area (3), Sterling (3), Big Lake (2), Chevak (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough South (2), Willow (2) and one each in Fritz Creek, Houston, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Nome, Northwest Arctic Borough, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Sitka, Sutton-Alpine, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Yakutat & Hoonah-Angoon, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area and three unknown locations. 

Six new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Two in Anchorage with purposes under investigation
• One in Fairbanks with purpose under investigation
• Three with location and purpose under investigation 

Four resident cases were subtracted and one nonresident case was added to the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 28,892 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,210

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 79.8 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: 148.2 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 116.3 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 104.0 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 66.7 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 47.9 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 46.8 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 39.8 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 37.8 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 30.8 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 26.9 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 12.9 cases per 100,000

MODELING APP – The modeling application, which provides the Projected Epidemiological Curve, Reproductive Number and Average Daily Rate, is also 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 557 Alaska residents, 285 are male and 269 are female and three are unknown. 29 are under the age of 10; 57 are aged 10-19; 98 are aged 20-29; 106 are aged 30-39; 85 are aged 40-49; 68 are aged 50-59; 62 are aged 60-69; 36 are aged 70-79 and 16 are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 675 hospitalizations and 118 deaths, with 24 new hospitalizations and four new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died. 

One previously reported death, a male resident of Anchorage in his 70s, was removed from the dashboard through data verification after death certificate review. For information about that process visit the DHSS Reporting Deaths webpage. 

Recent deaths:

• a male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• a female Southeast Fairbanks Census Area resident in her 70s
• a male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• a male resident of the Valdez-Cordova Census Area in his 70s who died out of state

There are currently 131 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and nine additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 140 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty-two of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 15%.

TESTING – A total of 969,573 tests have been conducted, with 24,338 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.42%. 

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. 25 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.