Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: July 7, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – July 7, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. July 2-6

OVERVIEW – 214 new cases | 0 deaths| 22 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: intermediate | 51% 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 – 56% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

51% 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: 72%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 67%
• YK-Delta Region: 66%
• Southwest Region: 61%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 60%
• Northwest Region: 55%
• Anchorage Region: 53%
• Other Interior Region: 52%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 45%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 43%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 35%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced 214 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past five days:

• July 2 – 42 residents, 4 nonresidents
• July 3 – 40 residents, 2 nonresidents
• July 4 – 34 residents, 0 nonresidents
• July 5 – 25 residents, 5 nonresidents
• July 6 – 57 residents, 5 nonresidents

198 total residents in: Anchorage (112), Juneau (9), Wasilla  (9), Eagle River (7), Hooper Bay (7), Soldotna (7), Palmer (5), Sitka (5), Cordova (4), Fairbanks (4), Nome Census Area (3), Seward (3), Sterling (3), Girdwood (2), Homer (2), Kenai (2), Kodiak  (2), and one each in Anchor Point, Bethel Census Area, Chugiak, Hoonah-Angoon/ Yakutat combined, Ketchikan, Kusilvak Census Area, Nome, North Pole, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, and Utqiaġvik. 

Sixteen new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: two with purpose "visitor", one with purpose "other", four with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: two with purpose under investigation
• Juneau: one with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: one with purpose under investigation
• Soldotna: one with purpose tourism
• Unalaska: one with purpose seafood
• Utqiaġvik: one with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: one with purpose seafood and one with purpose tourism

Two resident cases were subtracted and two nonresident cases were added to the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 68,674 and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,924.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,625 resident hospitalizations and 370 resident deaths, with six new hospitalizations and no new resident deaths reported. 

There are currently 22 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and one additional patient who is considered a person under investigation (PUI) for a total of 23 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 2.6%.

TESTING – A total of 2,395,221 tests have been conducted, with 11,578 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.24%.

Variants of concern situation summary

B.1.1.7 - Alpha (18 added since last report)

• Seeing this variant widely in Alaska (and the nation)

P.1  - Gamma (9 added since last report)

• No new regions (has been seen in most regions of the state)
• Evidence of community-transmission

B.1.617.2/AY.1 - Delta (24 added in this report)

• Most regions with cases this week
• Anchorage, Mat-Su, Interior, Southeast
• Transmission
• Household/secondary clusters
• Travel-associated
• Community (Anchorage)
• Vaccine status
• Several still under investigation, but 4 appear to be confirmed VB

Through July 7, the total number of B.1.1.7 (Alpha) cases is 366; P.1 (Gamma) cases is 60; and B.1.617.2/AY.1 (Delta) cases is 37. 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 intermediate at 5.16 cases per 100,000. One region of Alaska is in high alert status with widespread community transmission; three regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission; and seven regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• YK-Delta Region: 17.60 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>5-10 cases/100,000)

• Anchorage Municipality: 7.60 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 6.60 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 5.60 cases per 100,000

Low (0-5 cases/100,000)

• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 3.50 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 3.10 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 3.10 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 3.10 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 2.90 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 1.30 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 0.80 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.