Alaska COVID-19 Daily Summary: April 16, 2021

DAILY COVID-19 SUMMARY – April 16, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. April 15

OVERVIEW – 189 new cases | 0 deaths | 39 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 39.1% of Alaskans vaccinated

TAKE ACTION – Choosing to get vaccinated is the single most important action you can take to protect yourself and your community and to reopen our economy. 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 – 47.1% of Alaskans age 16 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.  

39.1% of Alaskans 16 and older have been fully vaccinated. The higher the vaccination rate, the more protected community members are from COVID-19. See below for percentages of all fully vaccinated Alaskans age 16 and older by region:

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 62.3%
• YK-Delta Region: 56.4%
• Juneau City and Borough: 55.4%
• Northwest Region: 48.8%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 43%
• Southwest Region: 41.7%
• Anchorage Municipality: 41.2%
• Other Interior Region: 40.9%
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 34.6%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 31.1%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 25.6%

For more information about vaccines, visit covidvax.alaska.gov.

CASES – DHSS today announced 189 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 182 were residents in: Anchorage (62), Wasilla (31), Fairbanks (22), Palmer (16), Soldotna (13), North Pole (9), Kenai (5), Bethel Census Area (3), Delta Junction (3), Eagle River (3), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Nome (2), Wrangell (2) and one each in Aleutians East Borough,  Juneau, Kenai Peninsula Borough North, Kotzebue, Seward, Valdez, Willow, Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon and one in a location under investigation. 

Seven new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation
• Wrangell: one with purpose under investigation
• Unalaska: one with purpose in seafood
• Fairbanks: two with purposes "other" 
• Location under investigation: two with purposes under investigation

Two resident cases were added to the dashboard to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 63,245 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,676.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,423 resident hospitalizations and 329 resident deaths, with 11 new hospitalizations and no new deaths 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. Five of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 3.7%.

TESTING – A total of 2,009,651 tests have been conducted, with 31,892 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.98%.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 22.37 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: 49.19 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 24.28 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 22.27 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 17.7 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 17.5 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 13.76 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Southwest Region: 9.35 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 8.09 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 8.75 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.42 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

• Northwest Region: 3.95 cases per 100,000

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.