Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: August 24, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – August 24, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Aug. 23

OVERVIEW – 593 new cases | 13 deaths | 121 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 53.9% 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 keep our economy strong. 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 – 60% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

53.9% 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: 76.1%
• YK-Delta Region: 71.5%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 70.9%
• Southwest Region: 64.4%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 63.2%
• Northwest Region: 58.5%
• Anchorage Region: 56%
• Other Interior Region: 55%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 47.7%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 45.8%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 37.9%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced 13 deaths of Alaska residents and 593 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 562 were residents in: Anchorage (183), Fairbanks (45), Wasilla (37), Soldotna (30), Nome Census Area (29), Kenai (26), Palmer (20), Seward (17), Eagle River (16), Juneau (15), Kodiak (11), Northwest Arctic Borough (11), North Pole (10), Homer (9), North Slope Borough (8), Craig (6), Bethel Census Area (5), Dillingham (5), Haines (5), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), Ketchikan (5), Nikiski (5), Utqiaġvik (5), Dillingham Census Area (4), Salcha (4), Sitka (4), Sterling (4), Douglas (3), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (3), Nome (3), Wrangell (3), Aleutians East Borough (2), Bethel (2), Big Lake (2), Copper River Census Area (2), Houston (2), Tok (2), Willow (2), and one each in Chugach Census Area, Delta Junction, Denali Borough, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Healy, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Kotzebue, Petersburg, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Unalaska, Valdez and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

31 new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 7 with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: 1 in education, 2 with purposes under investigation
• Seward: 1 in 'other' industry, 1 in tourism, 1 with purpose under investigation
• Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon: 3 in tourism
• Juneau: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Kodiak: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Prince of Wales-Hyder: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Wasilla: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Girdwood: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Homer: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Petersburg: 1 in tourism
• Soldotna: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: 2 with purposes under investigation

Two resident cases were added to the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 81,097 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,770.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,938 resident hospitalizations and 419 resident deaths, with 14 new hospitalizations and 13 new Alaska resident deaths reported yesterday. 

One death was recent:

• Female Anchorage resident in her 60s

Twelve deaths were identified through death certificate review:

• Female Fairbanks resident in her 70s
• Female Fairbanks resident in her 60s
• Male Anchorage resident 80+
• Male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• Female Anchorage resident in her 70s
• Male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• Male Anchorage resident in his 60s
• Male Anchorage resident in his 30s
• Female Soldotna resident in her 70s
• Male Homer resident 80+
• Male Homer resident in his 50s
• Male Homer resident in his 50s

Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.

There are currently 121 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and six additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 127 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty-eight of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 11.1%.

TESTING – A total of 2,670,600 tests have been conducted, with 39,626 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.47%.

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 453.1. For boroughs and census areas: 26 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), 2 areas are at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), 0 areas are at the moderate alert level (>10-49.99) and 0 areas are 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.