Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: June 11, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – June 11, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. June 9-10

OVERVIEW – 49 new cases | 4 deaths | 17 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: low | 48% of Alaskans 12+ 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. Learn more about the CDC’s recommendations for fully vaccinated people at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html.

VACCINATIONS – 54% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

48% of Alaskans 12 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 12 and older by region:

• Juneau Region: 69%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 64%
• YK-Delta Region: 62%
• Southwest Region: 58%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 55%
• Northwest Region: 52%
• Anchorage Region: 50%
• Other Interior Region: 49%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 41%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 41%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 32%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced four deaths of Alaska residents and 49 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past two days:

• June 9 cases – 28 residents, 1 nonresident
• June 10 cases – 18 residents, 2 nonresidents

46 total residents in: Anchorage (16), Bethel Census Area (3), Juneau (3), Kenai (3), Homer (2), Palmer (2), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Tok (2), Wrangell (2), and one each in Bethel, Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula, Craig, Delta Junction, Denali Borough, Fairbanks, Hooper Bay, Ketchikan, Metlakatla, Sitka, and Sterling.

Three new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: one with a purpose under investigation
• Eagle River: one in ‘Other industry’
• Fairbanks: one with a purpose under investigation

Fourteen resident cases and one nonresident case were added to the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 67,823 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,829.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,588 resident hospitalizations and 366 resident deaths, with one new hospitalization and four new resident deaths reported. 

All four deaths were identified through death certificate review:

• A female Fairbanks resident in her 70s
• A female Wasilla resident who was 80 years or older
• A male Wasilla resident who was in his 70s
• A female Sitka resident who was 80 years or older

There are currently 17 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and no additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 17 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Two of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 2.1%.

TESTING – A total of 2,316,092 tests have been conducted, with 17,208 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 0.74%.

Variants of concern situation summary

B.1.1.7 - Alpha (64 added since last report)

• This variant is being seen widely in Alaska and the nation; last week cases were identified in the Southwest Region
• New importations are continuing to be seen (e.g., cases associated with travel out of state)
• Also seeing instances of secondary and community spread

P.1 - Gamma (10 added since last report)

• Two cases in Palmer, linked to past cases
• Four cases in Fairbanks
  • One tested at Fairbanks airport; travel associated
  • Two in a household with no travel
  • One under investigation
• One case in Nome connected to a known cluster, no direct travel
• Two cases in Gulf Coast/Kenai Peninsula
  • One connected to a cluster with intrastate travel
  • One under investigation
• One case in Anchorage connected to a cluster with intrastate travel

B.1.617.2/AY.1 - Delta (2 added in this report)

• One case tested at Anchorage airport, travel associated
• One case still being investigated in Anchorage

Through June 9, the total number of B.1.1.7 (Alpha) cases is 294; P.1 (Gamma) cases is 38; and B.1.617.2/AY.1 (Delta) cases is 2. The weekly genomic surveillance report will be updated online at hss.state.ak.us/covid19/humancov/AKSeqCon_GenomicSituationReport.pdf.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is low at 3.78 cases per 100,000. Two regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission; two regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission; and seven regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 14.50 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 12.30 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>5-10 cases/100,000)

• Juneau City and Borough: 7.20 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 5.50 cases per 100,000

Low (0-5 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 5.00 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 4.10 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 3.30 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 2.80 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 2.50 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 2.50 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 2.50 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.