Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: August 31, 2021

Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – August 31, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Aug. 30

OVERVIEW634 new cases | 6 deaths | 152 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 55% 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 – 60.7% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

55% 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: 78.4%
  • Other Southeast Region - Northern: 73.4%
  • YK-Delta Region: 72.5%
  • Southwest Region: 65.2%
  • Other Southeast Region - Southern: 63.7%
  • Northwest Region: 60.3%
  • Anchorage Region: 57.1%
  • Other Interior Region: 55.7%
  • Fairbanks North Star Borough: 48.4%
  • Kenai Peninsula Region: 46.6%
  • Matanuska-Susitna Region: 38.6%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced four deaths of Alaska residents, two deaths of nonresidents and 634 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 601 were residents of: Anchorage (148), Wasilla (63), Juneau (59), Palmer (39), Ketchikan (25), Bethel Census Area (24), Kenai (23), Eagle River (21), Fairbanks (19), Kodiak (17), Soldotna (15), Nome Census Area (12), Chugiak (11), Utqiaġvik (10), Big Lake (9), Northwest Arctic Borough (8), Seward (8), Sterling (8), Dillingham Census Area (6), Homer (6), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (5), Kusilvak Census Area (5), Nikiski (5), Bethel (4), Douglas (4), Girdwood (4), Valdez (4), Dillingham (3), Houston (3), Kotzebue (3), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (3), Copper River Census Area (2), Delta Junction (2), Denali Borough (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough South (2), North Pole (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2), Tok (2), Willow (2), and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Anchor Point, Chugach Census Area, Cordova, Ester, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, North Slope Borough, Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Sutton-Alpine and Unalaska.

33 new nonresident cases were identified in:

  • Juneau: 10 with purposes under investigation
  • Anchorage: 6 with purposes under investigation
  • Denali Borough: 3 in tourism
  • Kodiak: 3 with purposes under investigation
  • Fairbanks: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Ketchikan: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Soldotna: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Wasilla: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Seward: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Locations under investigation: 2 with purposes under investigation

Five resident cases were added to the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 84,597 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,950.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,997 resident hospitalizations and 431 deaths. Yesterday there were 21 new resident hospitalizations, four deaths of Alaska residents and two nonresident deaths reported.

Four recent deaths of Alaska residents were identified:

  • A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
  • A female Anchorage resident in her 30s
  • A female Anchorage resident in her 20s
  • A male Dillingham Census Area resident in his 60s

Two recent deaths of nonresidents were also identified:

  • A male nonresident in his 70s died in Anchorage
  • A male nonresident in his 70s died in Anchorage

Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the individuals who died.

There are currently 152 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and four additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 156 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Nineteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 13.6%.

TESTING – A total of 2,737,989 tests have been conducted, with 44,480 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 7.56%.

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 479.1. For boroughs and census areas: 27 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), 1 area is 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.