Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Jan. 12, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021

PLEASE NOTE: Today's data hub update is delayed due to technical difficulties; the data team is actively working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. In the meantime, today’s case count summary has current data from the summary tables for Jan. 11.

DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska resident and 159 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 155 were residents in: Anchorage (32), Fairbanks (20), Wasilla (14), Bethel (13), North Slope Borough (13), Bethel Census Area (8), Juneau (8), Palmer (8), Kusilvak Census Area (7), North Pole (5), Kenai (4), Sitka (4), Eagle River (2), Homer (2), Ketchikan (2), Soldotna (2), Utqiaġvik (2), and one each in Anchor Point, Big Lake, Chugiak, Bristol Bay Borough/Lake & Peninsula, Nome Census Area, Northwest Arctic Borough, Sterling, Tok and Unalaska.

Four new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation
• Bethel: one with purpose under investigation
• Sitka: one with purpose under investigation
• Unalaska: seafood industry

Thirty-four resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard and three nonresident cases were added through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 48,918 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,604.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 39.9 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. One region is at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission.  

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 157.7 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 53.9 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 46.2 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 41.4 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 38.0 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 35.3 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 25.6 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 20.6 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 10.5 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 10.5 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 10.00 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 155 Alaska residents, 75 are male, 79 are female and one is unknown. Six are under the age of 10; 18 are aged 10-19; 36 are aged 20-29; 31 are aged 30-39; 21 are aged 40-49; 20 are aged 50-59; 10 are aged 60-69; eight are aged 70-79 and five are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,098 hospitalizations and 224 deaths, with fifteen new hospitalizations and one new recent death reported yesterday. The person who died was a male Anchorage resident in his 70s. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individual who died. 

There are currently 67 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and four additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 71 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Seven of these patients are on ventilators.

TESTING – A total of 1,363,166 tests have been conducted, with 30,311 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.4%. 

VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 29,803 dose #1 and 5,976 dose #2 COVID-19 vaccinations given in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard.

ALASKA PIONEER HOMES UPDATE – Since the last update on Jan. 5, the Anchorage Pioneer Home has had no new cases of COVID-19 in residents or staff. The Fairbanks Pioneer Home identified one new case in a staff member and currently has two active staff cases who are not working. No residents have tested positive at either home and the other four homes have no cases. Vaccine clinics have been held at the Anchorage, Palmer, Ketchikan and Sitka homes; Juneau and Fairbanks have clinics scheduled this week.

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. 11. 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.