Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: August 25, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – August 25, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Aug. 24

OVERVIEW – 620 new cases | 11 deaths | 130 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 54% 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 – 60.2% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

54% 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: 77.4%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 71.8%
• YK-Delta Region: 71.6%
• Southwest Region: 64.4%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 63.1%
• Northwest Region: 58.3%
• Anchorage Region: 56%
• Other Interior Region: 55%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 47.7%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 45.9%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 38%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced eight deaths of Alaska residents, three deaths of nonresidents and 620 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 573 were residents of: Anchorage (210), Wasilla (57), Fairbanks (42), Juneau (32), Nome Census Area (31), Palmer (24), Homer (17), North Pole (16), Ketchikan (15), Kodiak (15), Kenai (14), Chugiak (10), Eagle River (9), Soldotna (9), Northwest Arctic Borough (6), Sitka (6), Anchor Point (5), Nikiski (5), Delta Junction (4), Copper River Census Area (3), Girdwood (3), North Slope Borough (3), Salcha (3), Seward (3), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (3), Chevak (2), Dillingham (2), Nome (2), Skagway (2), Sterling (2), Unalaska (2), Willow (2), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (2), and one each in Bethel, Bristol Bay plus Lake & Peninsula, Craig, Dillingham Census Area, Douglas, Ester, Fritz Creek, Petersburg, Tok, Utqiaġvik, Valdez and Wrangell.

47 new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Juneau: 5 in tourism, 7 with purposes under investigation
• Anchorage: 10 with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: 6 with purposes under investigation
• Ketchikan: 6 with purposes under investigation
• Bristol Bay plus Lake & Peninsula: 3 with purposes under investigation
• Wasilla: 3 with purposes under investigation
• Kenai: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Petersburg: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 1 in North Slope oil industry
• Sitka: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Valdez: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: 1 with purpose under investigation

One resident case and three nonresident cases were added to the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 81,671 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,820.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,951 resident hospitalizations and 427 resident deaths, with 13 new hospitalizations, eight Alaska resident deaths and three nonresident deaths reported yesterday.

Eight deaths of Alaska residents were identified through death certificate review:

• Male Northwest Arctic Borough resident in his 70s
• Male Southeast Fairbanks Census Area resident 80+
• Female Wasilla resident in her 70s
• Female Anchorage resident 80+
• Male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• Male Anchorage resident in his 60s
• Male Soldotna resident in his 40s
• Male Anchor Point resident 80+

Three deaths of nonresidents were also identified through death certificate review:

• Male nonresident in his 60s died in Fairbanks
• Female nonresident in her 40s died in Fairbanks
• Female nonresident in her 70s died in Soldotna

Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.

There are currently 130 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 132 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Thirty of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 11.7%.

TESTING – A total of 2,681,755 tests have been conducted, with 40,337 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 6.78%.

Variants of concern situation summary

Delta (B.1.617.2-like) – 82 added since last report

• To date, we have detected 958 cases in multiple locations across the state. Accounts for almost all newly detected cases. During the week of Aug. 1 delta represented 97% of sequenced cases in Alaska.

As of Aug. 24, the total number of alpha (B.1.1.7) cases is 450; gamma (P.1) cases is 74; and delta (B.1.617.2-like) cases is 958.  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 reported number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days – is high (red) at 447.4. 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.