Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: August 9, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – August 9, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Aug. 6-8

Changes to the alert level system used to inform communities about what COVID-19 looks like in their area went live today. These changes to Alaska’s alert system will better align with CDC’s levels of transmission, make it more sensitive to recent changes in the number of reported COVID-19 cases, and provide more locally relevant information. More detailed information about the changes can be found at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/COVID-19/alertlevels.aspx

OVERVIEW – 863 new cases | 1 death | 101 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: moderate | 52.8% 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 – 58.5% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

52.8% 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: 74.7%
• YK-Delta Region: 70.4%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 69.1%
• Southwest Region: 63.5%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 62.1%
• Northwest Region: 57.5%
• Anchorage Region: 54.7%
• Other Interior Region: 53.9%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 46.7%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 44.9%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 37%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced one new Alaska resident death and 863 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska over the past three days:

• Aug. 6 – 301 residents, 18 nonresidents
• Aug. 7 – 340 residents, 15 nonresidents
• Aug. 8 – 185 residents, 4 nonresidents

826 total residents in: Anchorage (364), Wasilla (70), Juneau (30), Eagle River (29), Fairbanks (29), Homer (25), Sitka (25), Kenai (23), Ketchikan (23), Kodiak (21), Palmer (19), Soldotna (15), Dillingham Census Area (13), Kusilvak Census Area (10), Bethel (9), Aleutians East Borough (8), Kenai Peninsula Borough South (8), Chugiak (7), Cordova (7), Nome Census Area (6), Northwest Arctic Borough (6), Anchor Point (5), Craig (5), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), Utqiaġvik (5), Bethel Census Area (4), Kotzebue (4), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (4), North Pole (4), Wrangell (4), Chugach Census Area (3), Douglas (3), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (3), North Slope Borough (3), Sutton-Alpine (3), Denali Borough (2), Healy (2), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Seward (2), Tok (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2), and one each in Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula, Dillingham, Fritz Creek, Haines, Hooper Bay, Houston, Metlakatla, Nikiski, Petersburg, Sterling, Valdez and (1) location under investigation.

37 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 9 with purposes under investigation
• Soldotna: 5 with purposes under investigation
• Palmer: 3 with purposes under investigation
• Wasilla: 3 with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Kodiak: 1 in seafood industry, 1 with purpose under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 2 in North Slope oil industry
• Sitka: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula: 1 in seafood industry
• Cordova: 1 in seafood industry
• Homer: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kenai Peninsula Borough South: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Utqiaġvik: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: 2 with purposes under investigation

Fourteen resident cases were subtracted from, and six nonresident cases were added to the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 75,056 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,385.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,749 resident hospitalizations and 391 resident deaths, with three new hospitalizations and one recent Alaska resident death reported over the last three days. The individual who died was a male Anchorage resident in his 30s. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

There are currently 101 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and eight additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 109 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Thirteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 9.2%.

TESTING – A total of 2,554,585 tests have been conducted, with 29,793 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.41%.

ALERT LEVELS - The current statewide alert level – based on the reported number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days – is high (red) at 286.2 [Corrected from moderate at 5:10p]. For boroughs and census areas: 22 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), 2 areas are at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), 3 areas are at the moderate alert level (>10-49.99) and 1 area is at the low alert level (0-9.99).

Find alert levels for individual boroughs and census areas using the alert levels map on the cases dashboard at experience.arcgis.com/experience/2d19dc2b5c7e4b399ff6495a8950493d/. 

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.