Alaska COVID-19 Case Count Summary: April 5, 2021

CASE COUNT SUMMARY – April 5, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. April 2-4

OVERVIEW – 505 new cases | 0 deaths | 36 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 24.4% of Alaskans vaccinated | Take action

CASES – DHSS today announced 505 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past three days. 488 were residents in: Anchorage (176), Wasilla (99), Palmer (41), Fairbanks (30), Valdez (21), Eagle River (16), North Pole (13), Soldotna (13), Chugiak (11), Girdwood (7), Juneau (7), Kenai (6), Bethel Census Area (5), Houston (5), Seward (5), Ketchikan (4), Willow (4), Delta Junction (3), Kodiak (3), Bethel (2), Copper River Census Area (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2), Petersburg (2), Wrangell (2) and one each in Anchor Point, Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Kotzebue, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Meadow Lakes, Nikiski, Nome Census Area and Sterling.

Seventeen new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: three with purposes under investigation, two in seafood industry, two in North Slope oil
• Juneau: one with purpose under investigation
• Kodiak: one with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: six with purposes under investigation, one in North Slope oil industry and one in seafood industry

Five resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 61,401 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,600.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,370 resident hospitalizations and 309 resident deaths, with four new hospitalizations and no new deaths reported over the past three days.

There are currently 36 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and one additional patient who is considered a person under investigation (PUI) for a total of 37 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Eight of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 3.6%.

TESTING – A total of 1,936,287 tests have been conducted, with 34,507 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3%.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 23.22 cases per 100,000. Six regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Four regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and one region is at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 48.86 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 33.51 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 25.87 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 25.48 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 16.1 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 11.39 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 6.65 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.42 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 5.35 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 5.17 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

• Northwest Region: 2.9 cases per 100,000

TAKE ACTION – Choosing to get vaccinated is the single most important action you can take to protect yourself and your community. Until more people are vaccinated and case rates are lower in Alaska, take precautions including wearing a mask, staying six feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces. Learn more at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html.

VACCINATIONS – Based on allocations for the State of Alaska, Indian Health Service, Federal Retail Pharmacy Program and Federally Qualified Health Centers, there have been 245,417 people who have received at least one dose and 181,376 people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 for a total of 428,081 doses administered in Alaska.

24.4% of Alaskans (all ages) have been fully vaccinated. The higher the vaccination rate, the more protected community members are from COVID-19, including children younger than 16 who cannot yet be vaccinated. See below for percentages of all Alaskans vaccinated by region:

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 46.6%
• YK-Delta Region: 35%
• Northwest Region: 32%
• Juneau City and Borough: 31.6%
• Southwest Region: 27.6%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 26.9%
• Other Interior Region: 26%
• Anchorage Municipality: 25.7%
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 21.6%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 18.2%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 15.3%

For more information about vaccines, visit covidvax.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.