Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: July 21, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – July 21, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. July 19-20

OVERVIEW – 472 new cases | 1 death | 70 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 52% 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 – 57% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

52% 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: 74%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 68%
• YK-Delta Region: 68%
• Southwest Region: 62%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 61%
• Northwest Region: 56%
• Anchorage Region: 54%
• Other Interior Region: 53%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 46%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 44%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 36%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska resident and 472 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past two days:

• July 19 – 217 residents, 21 nonresidents
• July 20 – 218 residents, 16 nonresidents

435 total residents in: Anchorage (153), Sitka (62), Juneau (27), Homer (22), Palmer (21), Cordova (19), Wasilla (15), Fairbanks (14), Soldotna (14), Kodiak (11), Seward (10), Bethel Census Area (8), Bethel (6), Kenai (6), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (6), Chugiak (5), Eagle River (5), Ketchikan (5), Sterling (4), Hooper Bay (3), Kenai Peninsula Borough South (3), Unalaska (3), Anchor Point (2), Utqiaġvik (2) and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula, Copper River Census Area, Douglas, Girdwood, Kusilvak Census Area, North Pole, Sutton-Alpine and Valdez.

37 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Cordova: 5 in seafood industry, 2 with purposes under investigation
• Sitka: 7 with purposes under investigation
• Wasilla: 6 with purposes under investigation
• Anchorage: 4 with purposes under investigation
• Kenai Peninsula Borough unspecified: 2 in tourism, 1 with purpose under investigation
• Homer: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Kenai Peninsula Borough North: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: 6 with purposes under investigation

Two 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 70,328 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,046.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,678 resident hospitalizations and 375 resident deaths, with eleven new hospitalizations and one new resident death reported over the last two days. The individual who died was a female Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area resident in her 70s. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones.

There are currently 70 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and no additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 70 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twelve of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 6.2%.

TESTING – A total of 2,447,264 tests have been conducted, with 19,308 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 5.35%.

Variants of concern situation summary

Alpha (B.1.1.7) – 27 added since last report

• Seeing this variant widely in Alaska and the nation

Gamma (P.1) – 5 added since last report

• No new regions but this variant has been seen in most regions of the state

Delta (B.1.617.2-like) – 56 added in this report

• Although this variant has been seen in most regions, this week most samples were from Anchorage

As of July 20, the total number of Alpha (B.1.1.7) cases is 411; Gamma (P.1) cases is 70; and Delta (B.1.617.2-like) cases is 114. The weekly genomic surveillance report is 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 high at 16.2 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)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 71.10 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 25.80 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 25.60 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 20.10 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 17.10 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 12.40 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 10.10 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>5-10 cases/100,000)

• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 7.20 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.40 cases per 100,000

Low (0-5 cases/100,000)

• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 3.50 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 2.90 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.