Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: July 14, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – July 14, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. July 12-13

OVERVIEW – 247 new cases | 0 deaths| 50 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: 73%
• YK-Delta Region: 68%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 67%
• Southwest Region: 62%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 61%
• Northwest Region: 56%
• Anchorage Region: 53%
• Other Interior Region: 52%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 45%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 44%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 36%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced 247 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past two days:

• July 12 – 99 residents, 3 nonresidents
• July 13 – 136 residents, 9 nonresidents

235 total residents in:  Anchorage (115), Sitka (29), Palmer (11), Wasilla (10), Hooper Bay (9), Cordova (8), Kenai (7), Chugiak (6), Homer (5), Ketchikan  (5), Soldotna (5), Eagle River (4), Kenai Peninsula Borough- North (3), Fairbanks (2), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (2), Nome (2), Tok (2), Unalaska (2), and one each in Bethel Census Area, Chevak, Girdwood, Juneau, Kenai Peninsula Borough- South, Kusilvak Census Area, Petersburg, and Wrangell.

Twelve new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: three with purpose under investigation
• Juneau: two with purpose under investigation
• Petersburg: one with purpose under investigation
• Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area: one with purpose under investigation
• Tok: one with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: four with purpose under investigation

One resident case was added and no nonresident cases were added to the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 69,187and the total number of nonresident cases to 2,966.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,658 resident hospitalizations and 374 resident deaths, with fifteen new hospitalizations and no new resident deaths reported. 

There are currently 50 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 52 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Three of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 4.7%.

Note:  There has been a slight change in the Hospital Dashboard display.  The dashboard now defaults to the number of hospitalizations for all facilities.  Previously, the dashboard default included only general acute care and critical access facilities.  An error was also resolved that resulted in falsely low numbers being displayed when that filter was set to 'no.'

TESTING – A total of 2,421,666 tests have been conducted, with 16,759 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.67%.

Variants of concern situation summary

B.1.1.7 - Alpha (21 added since last report)

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

P.1 - Gamma (6 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 (21 added in this report)

• Many regions with cases this week
• Anchorage, Mat-Su, Interior
• Transmission
• Household/secondary clusters
• Travel-associated (new report in Southwest)
• Community
• Vaccine status
• Several still under investigation, but several are confirmed vaccine breakthrough (see figure in report for full distribution of VB by variant)

Through July 13, the total number of B.1.1.7 (Alpha) cases is 384; P.1 (Gamma) cases is 65; and B.1.617.2/AY.1 (Delta) cases is 58. The weekly genomic surveillance report will be updated online at http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/siteassets/pages/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 7.9 cases per 100,000. Four regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission; two regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission; and five regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 24.20 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 15.10 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 11.10 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 10.80 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>5-10 cases/100,000)

• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 9.60 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.40 cases per 100,000

Low (0-5 cases/100,000)

• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 3.70 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 3.40 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 2.90 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 2.00 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 1.50 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. 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.