Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Sept. 15, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Sept. 15, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14, 2021

OVERVIEW – 1,095 new cases | 2 deaths | 201 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 56.7% 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 vaccines at covidvax.alaska.gov and the CDC’s recommendations for fully vaccinated people at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html.

VACCINATIONS – 62% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

56.7% 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: 79.5%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 75.7%
• YK-Delta Region: 73.8%
• Southwest Region: 67.1%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 65.4%
• Northwest Region: 65.4%
• Anchorage Region: 58.9%
• Other Interior Region: 57.2%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 49.7%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 47.9%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 39.9%

CASES – DHSS today announced two deaths of Alaska residents and 1,095 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday.  1,068 were residents of: Anchorage (472), Fairbanks (129), Wasilla (80), Juneau (57), Eagle River (50), Bethel Census Area (32), North Pole (29), Palmer (28), Kenai (24), Homer (19), Soldotna (19), Chugiak (14), Seward (9), Bethel (7), Dillingham (7), Fairbanks North Star Borough (7), Kusilvak Census Area (7), Delta Junction (6), Utqiaġvik (6), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (6), Ketchikan (5), Anchor Point (4), Big Lake (3), Girdwood (3), Kenai Peninsula Borough - North (3), Kodiak (3), Mat-Su Borough (3), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (3), Healy (2), North Slope Borough (2), Northwest Arctic Borough (2), Petersburg (2), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Sitka (2), Tok (2), and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Bristol Bay/Lake and Peninsula, Cordova, Denali Borough, Dillingham Census Area, Douglas, Hooper Bay, Houston, Kenai Peninsula Borough - South, Kodiak Island Borough, Kotzebue, Nikiski, Nome Census Area, Salcha, Skagway, Sterling, Sutton-Alpine, Valdez, and Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon.

27 new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 7 with purposes under investigation
• Juneau: 2 in tourism industry, one with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: 3 with purposes under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 2 in North Slope oil industry
• Fairbanks: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Healy: 1 with purpose tourism
• Homer: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Seward: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Skagway: 1 with purpose tourism
• Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon: 1 with purpose tourism
• Location under investigation: 2 with purpose tourism, 4 with purposes under investigation

Two resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 94,105 and the total number of nonresident cases to 4,314.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 2,172 resident hospitalizations and 453 deaths. Yesterday there were 16 new resident hospitalizations and two new Alaska resident deaths reported.

Both of the resident deaths were recent:

• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 60s

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

There are currently 201 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 14 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 215 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Thirty-four of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 17.3%.

TESTING – A total of 2,892,976 tests have been conducted, with 45,155 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 9.62%.

Variants of concern situation summary

Delta (B.1.617.2-like) – 206 added since last report

• To date, we have detected 1,644 cases in multiple locations across the state. Accounts for almost all newly detected cases. During the week beginning Aug. 15, delta represented 98% of sequenced cases in Alaska.

As of September 14, the total number of alpha (B.1.1.7) cases is 453; gamma (P.1) cases is 74; and delta (B.1.617.2-like) cases is 1,644.  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 637.3. For boroughs and census areas: 24 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), one area is at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), three areas are at the moderate alert level (10-49.99) and no 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.