Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Jan. 15, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021

DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska resident and 305 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 296 were residents in: Anchorage (63), Wasilla (36), Fairbanks (30), Eagle River (20), Bethel Census Area (16), North Slope Borough (15), Northwest Arctic Borough (13), Palmer (13), Bethel (11), Kusilvak Census Area (11), North Pole (11), Cordova (6), Fairbanks North Star Borough (4), Juneau (4), Kodiak (4), Kodiak Island Borough (4), Sitka (4), Sterling (4), Chugiak (3), Unalaska (3), Hooper Bay (2), Kenai (2), Soldotna (2), Utqiaġvik (2), Valdez (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2), and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Anchor Point, Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula, Dillingham Census Area, Kenai Peninsula Borough North, Ketchikan, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Sutton-Alpine and Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River.

Nine new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Anchorage: one in seafood industry and two with purposes under investigation
• Cordova: one with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: one with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: two in mining industry and two with purposes under investigation

Four resident cases were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 49,835 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,631.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 36.7 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: 133.57 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 65.88 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 42.75 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 41.07 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 32.88 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 32.67 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 25.28 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 20.93 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 12.92 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 8.96 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 8.93 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 296 Alaska residents, 155 are male and 141 are female. 26 are under the age of 10; 39 are aged 10-19; 68 are aged 20-29; 53 are aged 30-39; 33 are aged 40-49; 31 are aged 50-59; 32 are aged 60-69; 10 are aged 70-79 and four are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,129 hospitalizations and 228 deaths, with three new hospitalizations and one new recent death reported yesterday. The person who died was a male Fairbanks resident who was 80 years or older. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones. 

There are currently 72 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 77 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Ten of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 7.5%.

TESTING – A total of 1,389,226 tests have been conducted, with 31,121 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3.68%.

VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 43,992 dose #1 and 10,954 dose #2 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. 14. 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.