Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Jan. 23, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021

DHSS today announced 251 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 241 were residents in: Anchorage (59), Bethel Census Area (58), Bethel (21), Wasilla (17), Eagle River (13), North Pole (13), Fairbanks (12), Kusilvak Census Area (11),  Palmer (10), Juneau (6), Unalaska (3), Dillingham Census Area (2), Hooper Bay (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2), Valdez-Cordova Census Area - Copper River (2) and one each in Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula, Chugiak, Cordova, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Nome Census Area, Northwest Arctic Borough , Seward, Sitka, Soldotna and Valdez. 

Ten new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Aleutians East Borough: seven with purpose in seafood industry
• Fairbanks: one with purpose in "other" industry
• Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: one with purpose under investigation

Two nonresident cases were subtracted from the dashboard through data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 51,445 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,705.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 29.7 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: 149.86 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 54.42 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 36.83 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 30.91 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 30.67 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 23.77 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 22.24 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 14.56 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 11.61 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 10.13 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.02 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 241 Alaska residents, 110 are male, 126 are female and five are unknown. 24 are under the age of 10; 36 are aged 10-19; 45 are aged 20-29; 33 are aged 30-39; 30 are aged 40-49; 31 are aged 50-59; 25 are aged 60-69; 13 are aged 70-79; and four are aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,160 hospitalizations and 257 deaths, with no new hospitalizations and five deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the individuals who died.

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

• A male Wasilla resident aged 80 years or older
• A female Wasilla resident aged 80 years or older
• A female Wasilla resident in her 70s
• A male Wasilla resident in his 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 60s

There are currently 53 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and three additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 56 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Seven of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 5.9%.

TESTING – A total of 1,446,514 tests have been conducted, with 28,498 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3.27%.

VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 72,899 dose #1 and 16,186 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. 22. 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.