Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Sept. 22, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Sept. 22, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Sept. 21, 2021

OVERVIEW – 1251 new cases | 1 death | 200 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 58% 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 – 62.6% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

58% 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: 80.2%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 76.5%
• YK-Delta Region: 74.9%
• Southwest Region: 68.3%
• Northwest Region: 67.4%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 65.9%
• Anchorage Region: 61%
• Other Interior Region: 57.9%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 50.4%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 48.6%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 40.6%

CASES – DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska resident and 1251 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 

1224 were residents of: Anchorage (445), Wasilla (177), Fairbanks (128), Palmer (96), Juneau (40), North Pole (32), Bethel Census Area (25), Kodiak (25), Eagle River (20), Utqiaġvik (20), Kenai (16), Bethel (14), Copper River Census Area (14), Soldotna (14), Chugiak (12), Homer (12), Valdez (12), Delta Junction (9), Dillingham (9), Fairbanks North Star Borough (9), Northwest Arctic Borough (9), Haines (8), Ketchikan (7), Kusilvak Census Area (7), Dillingham Census Area (5), Seward (5), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (5), Craig (4), North Slope Borough (4), Willow (4), Big Lake (3), Kotzebue (3), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (3), Sutton-Alpine (3), Anchor Point (2), Denali Borough (2), Houston (2), Nikiski (2), Salcha (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2), Tok (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2), and one each in Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula, Cordova, Douglas, Hooper Bay, Kenai Peninsula Borough North, Mat-Su Borough, Nome, Sitka and Sterling.

27 new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Fairbanks: 1 in 'other' industry, 4 with purposes under investigation
• Anchorage: 4 with purposes under investigation
• Wasilla: 4 with purposes under investigation
• Kodiak: 3 with purposes under investigation
• Delta Junction: 1 in mining industry
• Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 1 in North Slope oil industry
• Valdez: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: 7 with purposes under investigation

Four resident cases were subtracted from the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 100,111 and the total number of nonresident cases to 4,463.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 2,276 resident hospitalizations and 466 deaths. Yesterday there were 39 new resident hospitalizations and one new Alaska resident death reported. The individual who died recently was a male Anchorage resident who was 80 years or older. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

There are currently 200 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 13 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 213 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Thirty-four of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 17.8%.

TESTING – A total of 2,970,612 tests have been conducted, with 46,506 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 9.07%.

Variants of concern situation summary

Delta (B.1.617.2-like) – 601 added since last report

• Delta accounts for almost all newly detected cases. To date, 2,245 cases have been detected in multiple locations across the state. During the week beginning August 22, delta represented 97% of sequenced cases in Alaska. According to data from the CDC, the proportion of cases attributed to delta nationwide is estimated to be 99% for the week ending Sep 11.

Alpha (B.1.1.7) – 4 added since last report

• During the week beginning August 22, only three alpha were detected in sequenced cases in Alaska. Alpha proportions are nearly absent nationwide.

No recent cases of beta (B.1.351) or gamma (P.1) have been detected.

As of September 21, the total number of alpha (B.1.1.7) cases is 457; gamma (P.1) cases is 74; and delta (B.1.617.2-like) cases is 2,245. The full 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 823.8. 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), two areas are at the moderate alert level (10-49.99) and one area is 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.