Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: July 30, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – July 30, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. July 28-29

Due to the statewide alert level being at high for two weeks, DHSS will resume updating all dashboards on the data hub on a daily Monday-Friday basis (except for holidays) beginning Monday, Aug. 2. The data summary that is emailed to subscribers and posted to social media will also follow the M-F daily reporting.

OVERVIEW – 585 new cases | 3 deaths | 100 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 52.3% 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, including their recent change to masking guidance, at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html.

VACCINATIONS – 57.6% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

52.3% 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: 74.3%
• YK-Delta Region: 69.6%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 68.4%
• Southwest Region: 63%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 61.7%
• Northwest Region: 56.5%
• Anchorage Region: 54.2%
• Other Interior Region: 53.5%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 46.3%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 44.4%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 36.6%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced three deaths of Alaska residents and 585 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past two days:

• July 28 – 301 residents, 18 nonresidents
• July 29 – 235 residents, 31 nonresidents

536 total residents in: Anchorage (173), Sitka (36), Fairbanks (31), Kenai (30), Wasilla (25), Juneau (23), Palmer (20), Soldotna (20), Cordova (19), Eagle River (18), Seward (14), Bethel Census Area (12), Ketchikan (12), Kusilvak Census Area (12), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (10), North Pole (8), Kodiak (7), Bethel (6), Chugiak (6), Nome Census Area (5), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (5), Nikiski (4), Valdez (4), Big Lake (3), Copper River Census Area (3), Sterling (3), Tok (3), Unalaska (3), Utqiaġvik (3), Chevak (2), Chugach Census Area (2), Homer (2), Metlakatla (2) and one each in Aleutians West Census Area, Bristol Bay plus Lake & Peninsula, Craig, Douglas, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Girdwood, Kenai Peninsula Borough South, Kotzebue, Skagway and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

49 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 1 visitor, 11 with purposes under investigation
• Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area: 5 with purposes under investigation
• Unalaska: 5 in seafood industry
• Wasilla: 5 with purposes under investigation
• Seward: 3 in tourism, 1 with purpose under investigation
• Sitka: 4 with purposes under investigation
• Soldotna: 3 with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Kodiak: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 2 in North Slope oil industry
• Healy: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kenai Peninsula Borough North: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: 1 in 'other' industry
• Skagway: 1 in tourism

Eight resident cases and two nonresident cases were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 72,285 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,201.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,732 resident hospitalizations and 382 resident deaths, with nine new hospitalizations and three new resident deaths reported over the last two days.

The individuals who died were:

• A male Palmer resident in his 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 50s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 40s

Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones.

There are currently 101 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 103 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Sixteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 8.9%.

Please note: As of today, the ventilator gauge comparing number of ventilators currently in use against the total number available has been removed from the hospital dashboard. The number of COVID-19 patients (confirmed and suspected) on ventilators will remain on the dashboard. Hospital capacity can change rapidly and is also influenced by staff capacity. DHSS is removing the gauge because while the number of ventilators currently on the gauge represents the total possible vents capacity, not all vents are available due to staffing or other reasons.

TESTING – A total of 2,496,001 tests have been conducted, with 24,206 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 5.56%.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 27.7 cases per 100,000. All eleven regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission; no regions are at intermediate or low alert status.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 97.30 cases per 100,000
• Other Interior Region: 54.40 cases per 100,000
• Kenai Peninsula Borough: 42.40 cases per 100,000
• Juneau City and Borough: 35.10 cases per 100,000
• YK-Delta Region: 33.00 cases per 100,000
• Anchorage Municipality: 29.40 cases per 100,000
• Southwest Region: 25.80 cases per 100,000
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 16.30 cases per 100,000
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 15.20 cases per 100,000
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 10.40 cases per 100,000
• Northwest Region: 10.00 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>5-10 cases/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.