Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: July 28, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – July 28, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. July 26-27

OVERVIEW – 526 new cases | 2 deaths | 94 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 52.2% 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 – 57.4% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

52.2% 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: 74.1%
• YK-Delta Region: 69.1%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 68.3%
• Southwest Region: 63%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 61.6%
• Northwest Region: 56.4%
• Anchorage Region: 54.1%
• Other Interior Region: 53.3%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 46.2%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 44.3%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 36.5%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced two deaths and 526 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past two days:

• July 26 – 133 residents, 17 nonresidents
• July 27 – 338 residents, 38 nonresident

471 were residents in:  Anchorage (177), Juneau (29), Sitka (28), Eagle River (25), Bethel Census Area (22), Wasilla (21), Fairbanks (16), Cordova (15), Copper River Census Area (12), Kenai (9), Kodiak (8), Soldotna (8), Chugiak (7), Palmer (7), Tok (7), North Pole (6), Craig (5), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), Ketchikan (5), Unalaska (5), Big Lake (4), Kenai Peninsula Borough South (4), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (4), Seward (4), Sterling (4), Valdez (4), Bethel (3), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (3), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (2), Northwest Arctic Borough (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2), Utqiaġvik (2), Wrangell (2), and one each in Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula, Denali Borough, Dillingham, Douglas, Ester, Hooper Bay, Nome, Nome Census Area, Sutton-Alpine, and Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon.

55 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Unalaska: 27 in seafood
• Anchorage: 1 in 'other' industry,  4 with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: 4 with purposes under investigation
• Juneau: 1 in tourism, 2 with purposes under investigation
• Ketchikan: 3 in tourism
• Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon: 1 in tourism, 2 with purposes under investigation
• Seward: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Sitka: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Soldotna: 1 in 'other' industry, 1 with purpose under investigation
• Denali Borough: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Valdez: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: 2 in tourism

Two nonresident cases were added to the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 71,757and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,154.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,723 resident hospitalizations and 379 resident deaths, with 27 new resident hospitalizations and two new resident deaths reported over the last two days.

The individuals who died were:  

• an Anchorage male resident in his 70s
• a Soldotna male resident in his 70s

Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.  

There are currently 94 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 96 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Fourteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 10.6%.

TESTING – A total of 2,485,159 tests have been conducted, with 24,993 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 5.55%.

Variants of concern situation summary

Alpha (B.1.1.7) – 5 added since last report

• Proportion is appreciably declining. To date, we have detected 416 cases across the state.   

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

• To date, we have detected 71 cases across the state.

Delta (B.1.617.2-like) – 137 added since last report

• To date, we have detected 251 cases in multiple locations across the state. 

As of July 27, the total number of Alpha (B.1.1.7) cases is 416; Gamma (P.1) cases is 71; and Delta (B.1.617.2-like) cases is 251. The weekly genomic surveillance report is 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 high at 25.1 cases per 100,000. Eight regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission; three regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission; and no regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 99.10 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 50.40 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 37.00 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 30.80 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 27.60 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 26.70 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 23.70 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 12.70 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>5-10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 9.40 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 8.40 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 8.20 cases per 100,000

Low (0-5 cases/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.