Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Dec. 3, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020

DHSS today announced eight Alaska resident deaths and 760 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 755 were residents in: Anchorage (272), Wasilla (160), Kodiak (57), Eagle River (34), Palmer (33), Soldotna (27), Fairbanks (17), Bethel (16), Chugiak (15), North Pole (12), Kenai (11), Utqiaġvik (11), Delta Junction (7), Homer (7), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (7), Sitka (7), Sterling (7), Ketchikan (6), Nome (5), Bethel Census Area (4), Juneau (4), Seward (4), Aleutians East Borough (2), Big Lake (2), Craig (2), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (2), Kodiak Island Borough (2), Kotzebue (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2), Nikiski (2), Valdez (2), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (2) and one each in Anchor Point, Chevak, Denali Borough, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Girdwood, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Nome Census Area, Northwest Arctic Borough, Petersburg, Willow, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area and one location under investigation.

Five new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Prudhoe Bay: two in North Slope oil industry
• Soldotna: one with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: two with purposes under investigation

Five resident cases and one nonresident case were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 33,291 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,272.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 81.93 cases per 100,000. All regions in Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 171.3 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 115.63 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 103.04 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 93.05 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 61.19 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 59.08 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 53.31 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 38.28 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 28.98 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 20.54 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 11.83 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 755 Alaska residents, 429 are male and 325 are female and one is unknown. 45 are under the age of 10; 100 are aged 10-19; 125 are aged 20-29; 139 are aged 30-39; 118 are aged 40-49; 109 are aged 50-59; 68 are aged 60-69; 39 are aged 70-79 and 12 are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 768 hospitalizations and 129 deaths, with 15 new hospitalizations and eight new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died.  

All eight deaths were recent:

• A female Bethel resident in her 80s
• A female Bethel resident in her 50s
• A male Kusilvak Census Area resident in his 30s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 80s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s

There are currently 144 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 13 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 157 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty-four of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 13.6%.

TESTING – A total of 1,040,505 tests have been conducted, with 19,018 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.66%. 

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 Dec. 2 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. Current hospitalizations are reported for all facilities, not just general acute care and critical access facilities, as is the default on the dashboard. 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.