Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Dec. 16, 2020

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020

DHSS today announced two deaths of Alaska residents and 616 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 604 were residents in: Anchorage (240), Wasilla (84), Palmer (34), Fairbanks (33), Kodiak (30), Kenai (28), Bethel (22), Eagle River (14), Soldotna (14), North Pole (13), Utqiaġvik (13), Kusilvak Census Area (11), Chugiak (9), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (7), Homer (6), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), Nome (5), Fairbanks North Star Borough (4), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (4), Kenai Peninsula Borough South (3), Sitka (3), Sterling (3), Bethel Census Area (2), Cordova (2), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (2), Tok (2), Valdez (2), Willow (2), and one each in Big Lake, Delta Junction, Healy, Kodiak Island Borough, Nikiski, North Slope Borough and Unalaska.

Twelve new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Unalaska: three with purposes under investigation
• Anchorage: two with purposes under investigation
• Kenai: one with purpose under investigation
• Fairbanks: one with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: one with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: four with purposes under investigation

One resident case was removed from the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 41,041 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,432.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 81.95 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: 170.76 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 117.42 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 105.7 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 88.18 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 73.3 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 68 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 63.79 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 49.35 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 22.55 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 17.11 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 12.9 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 604 Alaska residents, 322 are male and 282 are female. 43 are under the age of 10; 60 are aged 10-19; 127 are aged 20-29; 123 are aged 30-39; 76 are aged 40-49; 84 are aged 50-59; 59 are aged 60-69; 23 are aged 70-79 and nine are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 903 hospitalizations and 180 deaths, with 12 new hospitalizations and two new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the individuals who died. 

Both deaths were recent:

• A male Anchorage resident in his 60s
• A male Chugiak resident in his 60s

There are currently 137 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and nine additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 146 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Fifteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 14.5%.

TESTING – A total of 1,166,145 tests have been conducted, with 28,797 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.52%. 

TAKE ACTION – Vaccines have begun arriving in Alaska but we all still need to maintain our COVID-19 protective measures to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy: coronavirus.dhss.alaska.gov

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, there have been delays in getting reports 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. 15 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.