Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Jan. 16, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021

DHSS today announced 195 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 190 were residents in: Anchorage (56), Wasilla (21),  Kusilvak Census Area (15), Palmer (13), Bethel Census Area (11), Fairbanks (10), Bethel (9), North Slope Borough (9), North Pole (7), Chugiak (5), Kodiak (5), Soldotna (5), Utqiaġvik (4), Eagle River (3), Unalaska (3), Kenai (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2) and one each in Big Lake, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Girdwood, Juneau, Kotzebue, Nome, Northwest Arctic Borough, and the Valdez-Cordova Census Area - Copper River. 

Five new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Wasilla: Two with purposes under investigation
• Juneau: One with purpose in the seafood industry
• Northwest Arctic Borough: One with purpose in the mining industry
• Locations under investigation: One with purpose in North Slope oil industry

Eight resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 50,017 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,636. 

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 35.69 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: 134.11 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 66.4 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 41.20 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 40.22 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 32.13 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 31.45 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 24.37 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 19.46 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: 7.37 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 190 Alaska residents, 90 are male and 100 are female. 24 are under the age of 10; 19 are aged 10-19; 50 are aged 20-29; 27 are aged 30-39; 20 are aged 40-49; 20 are aged 50-59; 18 are aged 60-69; nine are aged 70-79 and three are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,129 hospitalizations and 228 deaths, with no new hospitalizations and no new recent deaths reported yesterday. 

There are currently 63 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and four additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 67 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Nine of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 6.6%.

TESTING – A total of 1,389,649 tests have been conducted, with 32,472 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3.53%.

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. 15. 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.