Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: April 2, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY for April 2, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. April 1

DHSS today announced 205 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 197 were residents in: Anchorage (65), Wasilla (34), Fairbanks (24), Bethel Census Area (13), Palmer (13), Chugiak (6), Seward (6), Soldotna (6), Eagle River (5), Big Lake (3), Delta Junction (3), Kodiak (3), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (3), North Pole (3), Healy (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2), and one each in Houston, Juneau, Salcha, Sterling, Sutton-Alpine, and Willow.

Eight new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

• Anchorage: one in seafood industry, one with purpose under investigation
• Valdez: two with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: one with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: one with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: one in North Slope oil industry, one with purpose under investigation

Two resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 60,918 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,583.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 21.89 cases per 100,000. Five regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission; three regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission; and three regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 44.87 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 31.66 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 31.1 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 24.13 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 15.14 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 8.73 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 7.22 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 5.6 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

• Northwest Region: 4.48 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 4.34 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 3.82 cases per 100,000

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,366 hospitalizations and 309 deaths, with one new hospitalization and no deaths of Alaska residents reported yesterday.

There are currently 39 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and three additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 42 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on a ventilator. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 3.9%.

TESTING – A total of 1,919,829 tests have been conducted, with 31,858 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3%.

VACCINATIONS – Based on allocations for the State of Alaska, Indian Health Service, Federal Retail Pharmacy Program and Federally Qualified Health Centers, there have been 240,967 people who have received at least one dose of a vaccine and 172,077 people fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with a total of 415,810 doses administered in Alaska. For more information about vaccines, visit covidvax.alaska.gov.

TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are being distributed throughout Alaska, but even if you’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautions in public places like wearing a mask, staying six feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces until we learn more about how vaccines affect the spread of COVID-19. Learn more at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html.

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.