Alaska COVID-19 Daily Summary: April 29, 2021

COVID-19 DAILY SUMMARY – April 29, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. April 28

OVERVIEW – 161 new cases | 0 deaths | 49 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 43.5% 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 – 49.8% of Alaskans age 16 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.  

43.5% 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: 63.5%
• Juneau Region: 60.8%
• YK-Delta Region: 59.7%
• Northwest Region: 50.1%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 47.7%
• Anchorage Region: 46.6%
• Southwest Region: 44.9%
• Other Interior Region: 44.6%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 37.6%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 35.1%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 29.4%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced 161 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 158 were residents in: Anchorage (49), Fairbanks (34), Wasilla (20), North Pole (16), Palmer (9), Eagle River (6), Soldotna (4), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Ketchikan (2), Kodiak (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2), and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Bethel Census Area, Chevak, Delta Junction, Houston, Juneau, Kenai, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Seward, Sterling, Unalaska and Utqiaġvik.

Three new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Juneau: one with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: one with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: one with purpose under investigation

Eight resident cases were added to and one nonresident case was subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 65,266 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,736.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,482 resident hospitalizations and 341 resident deaths, with six new hospitalizations and no new resident deaths reported yesterday.

There are currently 49 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 54 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 4.6%.

TESTING – A total of 2,091,352 tests have been conducted, with 28,112 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.8%.

Variant situation summary

• The B.1.1.7 variant has been introduced into Alaska at least 20 different times, mostly in the Anchorage/Mat-Su region, but also in Southeast and Interior Alaska.
• Community transmission has occurred following several introductions of B.1.1.7.
• Given that B.1.1.7 has become the dominant variant in the United States, it is unsurprising that it has been repeatedly imported into Alaska.
• There is no evidence at this time that community transmission of the P.1 variant is occurring in Alaska.

For the week of April 18-24, the following variants of concern were identified in Alaska cases based on the week of specimen collection:  

B.1.1.7 variant (UK)

• Week of March 28 – April 3, Anchorage/Eagle River, acquired through travel
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Anchorage/Eagle River, community acquisition
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Anchorage/Eagle River, community acquisition
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Juneau, acquisition under investigation
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Fairbanks, acquired through travel
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Fairbanks, acquired through travel
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Fairbanks, community acquisition
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Fairbanks, secondary acquisition
• Week of March 28 – April 3, Fairbanks, acquisition could not be determined
• Week of April 4-10, Wasilla, secondary acquisition
• Week of April 4-10, Anchorage, acquired through travel
• Week of April 11-17, Wasilla, acquired through travel

P.1 variant (Brazil)

• Week of March 28 – April 3, Southwest region, acquired through travel

Through April 24, the total number of B.1.1.7 (UK) cases is 31; P.1 (Brazil) cases is 9; and B.1.351 (South Africa) cases is 1. The full weekly genomic surveillance report is posted online at http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/variants.aspx.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 21.28 cases per 100,000. Seven 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)

• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 47.05 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 33.88 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 17.94 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 17.21 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 15.9 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 15.42 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 14.59 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Northwest Region: 7.37 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 6.97 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 6.3 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

• Southwest Region: 4.54 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.