Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Jan. 3, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021

DHSS today announced 239 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 232 were residents in:  Bethel Census Area (84), Anchorage (39), Wasilla (27), Bethel (26), Kusilvak Census Area (20), Fairbanks (8), Eagle River (6), Palmer (5), Utqiaġvik (4), Kodiak (2), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (2), and one each in Big Lake, Chugiak, Cordova, Nome Census Area, North Pole, North Slope Borough, Seward, Sitka, and Sutton-Alpine.

Seven new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Two in Unalaska in seafood industry
• Two in Unalaska with purposes under investigation
• One in Anchorage with purpose under investigation
• One in Wasilla with purpose under investigation
• One with both location and purpose under investigation

61 resident cases and one nonresident case were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 46,552 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,546. 

ALERT LEVELS - The daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 37.82 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status.  Two regions are at intermediate alert status.  Widespread community transmission is occurring.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 138.45 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 45.83 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 42.76 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 39.87 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 32.18 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 24.74 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 22.85 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 21.42 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 13.85 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 6.64 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 6.09 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 232 Alaska residents, 109 are male, 119 are female, and four are unknown. 30 are under the age of 10; 35 are aged 10-19; 40 are aged 20-29; 35 are aged 30-39; 29 are aged 40-49; 29 are aged 50-59; 21 are aged 60-69; four are aged 70-79, six are aged 80 or older, and three are unknown.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,013 hospitalizations and 214 deaths, with three new hospitalizations and no new deaths reported yesterday. 

There are currently 74 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 13 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 87 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Seven of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 8.4%.

TESTING – A total of 1,293,837 tests have been conducted, with 29, 457 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 5.14%. 

COVID-19 VACCINATIONS: To date, there have been 13,722 dose #1 COVID-19 vaccinations given in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard. 

TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are being distributed throughout 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: 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. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause 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. 

This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 2. 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; weekly and daily case summaries are archived at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/communications.aspx#updates.