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

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020

DHSS today announced 637 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 628 were residents in: Anchorage (226), Wasilla (96), Bethel Census Area (83), Fairbanks (60), Palmer (31), North Pole (13), Eagle River (12), Homer (11), Juneau (11), Kenai (11), Bethel (9), Kodiak (8), Kusilvak Census Area (7), Sitka (6), Aleutians East Borough (4), Nome (4), Fairbanks North Star Borough (3), Girdwood (3), Kotzebue (3), Soldotna (3), Utqiaġvik (3), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (3), Big Lake (2), Chugiak (2), Sterling (2), and one each in Anchor Point, Chevak, Dillingham, Healy, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Ketchikan, Mat-Su Borough, Petersburg, Tok, Valdez, Yakutat/Hoonah-Angoon and one location under investigation.

Nine new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Anchorage: one airline pilot; one with purpose under investigation
• Homer: two with purpose under investigation
• Delta Junction: one in mining
• Palmer: one with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: one with unknown purpose
• Location under investigation: two with purpose under investigation

Sixteen resident cases were removed from the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 30,816 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,249.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 79.86 cases per 100,000. All regions in Alaska except for one are in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 188.41 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 105.27 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 100.6 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 68.32 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 61.54 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 50.51 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 42.9 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 40.54 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 23.75 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 22.55 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (5-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 7.53 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 628 Alaska residents, 326 are male and 300 are female and two are unknown. 55 are under the age of 10; 70 are aged 10-19; 124 are aged 20-29; 136 are aged 30-39; 75 are aged 40-49; 82 are aged 50-59; 52 are aged 60-69; 22 are aged 70-79 and 12 are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 707 hospitalizations and 120 deaths, with one new hospitalization and no new deaths reported yesterday.

There are currently 149 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 10 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 159 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty-seven of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 15.2%.

TESTING – A total of 1,006,180 tests have been conducted, with 27,319 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.7%. 

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. 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. 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.