Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: Feb. 17, 2021

Alaska COVID-19 Case Count

CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Feb. 16

DHSS today announced one death of an Alaskan resident and 40 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 37 were residents in:  Wasilla (13), Anchorage (9), Fairbanks (6), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (3),  and one each in Cordova, Ketchikan, North Pole, Seward, Soldotna, and Utqiaġvik.

Three new nonresident cases were identified in:

  • Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation
  • Unalaska: two in seafood industry

26 resident cases were added and two nonresident cases were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 54,799 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,178.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 16.66 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Three regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and one region is at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

  • YK-Delta Region: 59.18 cases per 100,000
  • Matanuska-Susitna Region: 33.35 cases per 100,000
  • Southwest Region: 22.49 cases per 100,000
  • Other Interior Region: 19.5 cases per 100,000
  • Anchorage Municipality: 13.49 cases per 100,000
  • Fairbanks North Star Borough: 11.47 cases per 100,000
  • Other Southeast Region - Southern: 10.03 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

  • Northwest Region: 5.99 cases per 100,000
  • Juneau City and Borough: 5.58 cases per 100,000
  • Kenai Peninsula Borough: 5.51 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

  • Other Southeast Region - Northern: 2.79 cases per 100,000

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS– There have been a total of 1,202 hospitalizations and 286 deaths, with three new hospitalizations and one new Alaska resident death reported. The resident who died was an Anchorage male in his 60s.  Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.  

There are currently 31 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and one additional patient who is considered a person under investigation (PUI) for a total of 32 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Two of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 3.2%.

TESTING – A total of 1,611,971 tests have been conducted, with 24,594 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.42%.

VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 130,997 dose #1 and 68,151 dose #2 COVID-19 vaccinations given for a total of 199,148 doses administered in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard.

TAKE ACTIONVaccines 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. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub.

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.