Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: September 1, 2021

Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – August 31, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Aug. 31

OVERVIEW801 new cases | 4 deaths | 161 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 55.1% 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 – 60.9% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

55.1% 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: 78.5%
  • Other Southeast Region - Northern: 73.5%
  • YK-Delta Region: 72.6%
  • Southwest Region: 65.3%
  • Other Southeast Region - Southern: 64%
  • Northwest Region: 60.4%
  • Anchorage Region: 57.3%
  • Other Interior Region: 55.8%
  • Fairbanks North Star Borough: 48.5%
  • Kenai Peninsula Region: 46.8%
  • Matanuska-Susitna Region: 38.8%

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

CASES – DHSS today announced four deaths of Alaska residents and 801 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 765 were residents of: Anchorage (275), Fairbanks (71), Wasilla (50), Palmer (32), Soldotna (30), North Pole (29), Juneau (25), Kenai (25), Bethel Census Area (23), Ketchikan (20), Northwest Arctic Borough (17), Utqiaġvik (17), Sterling (11), Eagle River (10), Homer (9), North Slope Borough ( 8 ), Seward ( 8 ), Tok (6), Bethel (5), Kodiak (5), Kusilvak Census Area (5), Nikiski (5), Unalaska (5), Chugiak (4), Copper River Census Area (4), Craig (4), Healy (4), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (4), Sitka (4), Willow (4), Anchor Point (3), Dillingham Census Area (3), Douglas (3), Fairbanks North Star Borough (3), Girdwood (3), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (3), Kotzebue (3), Nome Census Area (3), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (3), Aleutians East Borough (2), Big Lake (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough - North (2), Mat-Su Borough (2), Sutton-Alpine (2), Wrangell (2), and one each in Chevak, Delta Junction, Denali Borough, Houston, and Kenai Peninsula Borough – South, Petersburg, and Southeast Fairbanks Census Area.

36 new nonresident cases were identified in:

  • Anchorage: 1 with purpose 'other', 5 with purposes under investigation
  • Fairbanks: 5 with purposes under investigation
  • Juneau: 2 in tourism, 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Healy: 3 with purposes under investigation
  • Sitka: 1 in tourism, 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Ketchikan: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Palmer: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Prudhoe Bay: 2 in North Slope oil
  • Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Prince of Wales Census Area: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Skagway: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Locations under investigation: 6 with purposes under investigation

Four resident cases were subtracted and one nonresident case was added to the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 85,358 and the total number of nonresident cases to 3,987.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 2,010 resident hospitalizations and 435 deaths. Yesterday there were 13 new resident hospitalizations, four deaths of Alaska residents and no nonresident deaths reported.

Four recent deaths of Alaska residents were identified:

  • A male Anchorage resident aged 80+
  • A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
  • A male Anchorage resident in his 40s
  • A female Bethel Census Area resident in her 40s

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

There are currently 161 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and seven additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 168 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Twenty of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 14.1%.

TESTING – A total of 2,749,094 tests have been conducted, with 44,692 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 7.47%.

Variants of concern situation summary

Delta (B.1.617.2-like) – 238 added since last report

  • To date, we have detected 1,196 cases in multiple locations across the state. Accounts for almost all newly detected cases. During the week of Aug. 8, delta represented 99% of sequenced cases in Alaska.

As of Aug. 31, the total number of alpha (B.1.1.7) cases is 451; gamma (P.1) cases is 74; and delta (B.1.617.2-like) cases is 1,196.  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 504.7. 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.