Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Jan. 20, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021

DHSS today announced 24 deaths of Alaska residents and 167 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 157 were residents in: Anchorage (49), Wasilla (22), Fairbanks (20), Kusilvak Census Area (11), Palmer (8), Eagle River (6), North Pole (6), Bethel Census Area (4), Soldotna (4), Homer (3), Kodiak (3), North Slope Borough (3), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (3), Juneau (2), Kenai (2), and one each in Bethel, Big Lake, Cordova, Dillingham, Dillingham Census Area, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Sutton-Alpine, Unalaska, and Willow.

Ten new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Anchorage: one in mining and one with purpose under investigation
• Seward: one with purpose under investigation
• Unalaska: one with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: one with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: five with purposes under investigation

Three resident cases and one nonresident case were added to the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 50,732 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,661.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 33.59 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: 137.1 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 67.18 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 40.79 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 36.91 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 35.83 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 28.42 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 26.2 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 18.11 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 12.57 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Juneau City and Borough: 7.15 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.73 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 157 Alaska residents, 69 are male, 83 are female and five are unknown. 11 are under the age of 10; 18 are aged 10-19; 39 are aged 20-29; 29 are aged 30-39; 22 are aged 40-49; 17 are aged 50-59; nine are aged 60-69; seven are aged 70-79 and five are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,146 hospitalizations and 251 deaths, with seven new hospitalizations and 24 deaths of Alaska residents reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died. 

One death was recent:

• A female North Pole resident in her 70s

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

• A male North Pole resident aged 80 years or older
• A female Bethel Census Area resident in her 70s
• A female Bethel Census Area resident in her 70s
• A male Wasilla resident in his 60s
• A male Wasilla resident in his 60s
• A male Wasilla resident in his 40s
• A female Palmer resident aged 80 years or older
• A male Palmer resident in his 60s
• A male Eagle River resident in his 60s
• A male Anchorage resident aged 80 years or older
• A male Anchorage resident aged 80 years or older
• A male Anchorage resident aged 80 years or older
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 60s
• A male Kenai resident in his 70s
• A female Homer resident in her 60s
• A male Kodiak resident in his 70s
• A female Kodiak resident in her 60s
• A female Kodiak Island Borough resident in her 60s

One previously identified male Anchorage resident in his 60s has been removed from the total number of Alaska resident deaths upon final review of the death certificate.

Nonresident deaths now total two, as a previously identified death of a female in Anchorage who was 80 years or older has been corrected to nonresident status and removed from the total count of Alaska resident deaths.

There are currently 55 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 57 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Nine of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 6.5%.

TESTING – A total of 1,420,122 tests have been conducted, with 26,034 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3.77%.

VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 59,392 dose #1 and 13,270 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. 19. 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.