Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Jan. 4, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Monday, Jan. 4, 2021

DHSS today announced three deaths of Alaska residents and 232 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 227 were residents in: Anchorage (81), Wasilla (30), Bethel (17), Fairbanks (14), Palmer (13), Kusilvak Census Area (12), Eagle River (11), Bethel Census Area (10), Sterling (6), North Pole (4), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (4), Homer (3), Kenai (3), Anchor Point (2), Chugiak (2), Kodiak (2), North Slope Borough (2), and one each in Big Lake, Chevak, Girdwood, Haines, Hooper Bay, Nome, Nome Census Area, Petersburg, Soldotna, Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River and Willow.

Five new nonresident cases were identified yesterday:

• Anchorage: two with purposes under investigation
• Locations under investigation: three with purposes under investigation

33 resident cases were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 46,812 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,551. 

ALERT LEVELS - The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 38.59 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Two regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission.  

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 144.15 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 48.18 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 42.52 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 40.02 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 32.55 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 25.26 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 23.76 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 22.27 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 13.62 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 6.98 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 6.09 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 227 Alaska residents, 121 are male, 100 are female, and six are unknown. 22 are under the age of 10; 27 are aged 10-19; 43 are aged 20-29; 44 are aged 30-39; 27 are aged 40-49; 33 are aged 50-59; 13 are aged 60-69; 14 are aged 70-79 and four are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,013 hospitalizations and 217 deaths, with no new hospitalizations and three new deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died. 

All three deaths were from death certificate reviews over the past several months:

• A female Soldotna resident who was 80 or older
• A male Yukon-Kuskokwim Census Area resident who was 80 or older
• A female Yukon-Kuskokwim Census Area resident who was 80 or older

There are currently 83 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 14 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 97 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Nine of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 9.2%.

Change to reporting of deaths: As of Jan. 4, 2021, counted deaths in Alaska now include both COVID-19 cases confirmed through a lab result, as well as probable deaths based on confirmed COVID-19 clinical and epidemiological criteria, as defined by the CDC, with no confirmatory lab testing. The three deaths added today are the probable deaths identified prior to Jan. 4. Making this change to include probable deaths brings Alaska in line with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists’ (CTSE) standards for counting COVID-19 deaths as recommended by the CDC.

CDC considers “cause of death” to be a best medical opinion. Counted deaths include deaths where the medical professional outlines COVID-19 as a part of the logical sequence of causes that led to death. Out-of-state deaths of confirmed cases in Alaska residents are reported by another state either directly to the Section of Epidemiology or collected by the Section of Health Analytics and Vital Records through the State and Territorial Exchange of Vital Events system. The process of confirming and reporting deaths can take several weeks, therefore deaths do not reflect real-time reporting due to the reporting lag time.

TESTING – A total of 1,297,498 tests have been conducted, with 29,295 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 5.19%. 

COVID-19 VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 18,266 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. 3. 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.