Alaska COVID-19 Daily Summary: May 4, 2021

COVID-19 DAILY SUMMARY – May 4, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. May 3

OVERVIEW – 102 new cases | 0 deaths | 55 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 45.2% 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 – 50.7% of Alaskans age 16 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.  

45.2%  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:

• Juneau Region: 66.1%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 64.5%
• YK-Delta Region: 61%
• Northwest Region: 50.7%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 48.4%
• Anchorage Region: 47.6%
• Southwest Region: 47.1%
• Other Interior Region: 45.4%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 39.6%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 38.8%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 30.5%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced 102 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.  94 were residents in:  Anchorage (18), Fairbanks (18), Wasilla (15), North Pole (7), Palmer (6), Fairbanks North Star Borough (4), Kenai (3), Ketchikan (3), Nome (3), Juneau (2), and one each in Bethel Census Area, Big Lake, Delta Junction, Houston, Kusilvak Census Area, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Salcha, Seward, Sitka, Soldotna, Sutton-Alpine, Valdez, Willow, Wrangell, and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

Eight new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Sitka:  three with purpose under investigation
• Unalaska:  two in seafood industry
• Fairbanks: one with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: two with purpose under investigation

Ten resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 65,762 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,756.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,503 resident hospitalizations and 342 resident deaths, with nine new hospitalizations and no new deaths reported yesterday. 

There are currently 55 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and eight additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 63 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Eleven of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 5.3%.

TESTING – A total of 2,121,768 tests have been conducted, with 28,880 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.09%.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 19.07 cases per 100,000. Seven regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Two regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and two regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 50.14 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 26.89 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 20.6 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 14.86 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 14.75 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 12.75 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 11.51 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

• Northwest Region: 8.16 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 6.97 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 3.85 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 3.74 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.