Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Sept. 24, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Sept. 24, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Sept. 23, 2021

OVERVIEW – 1,793 new cases | 44 deaths | 217 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 58.5% 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 – 62.8% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

58.5% 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: 80.5%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 77.1%
• YK-Delta Region: 75.6%
• Southwest Region: 68.6%
• Northwest Region: 67.9%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 66.3%
• Anchorage Region: 61.6%
• Other Interior Region: 58.4%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 50.7%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 48.9%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 40.8%

CASES – DHSS today announced 41 deaths of Alaska residents, three deaths of nonresidents and 1,793 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 

1,735 were residents of: Anchorage (468), Wasilla (251), Fairbanks (217), Palmer (150), North Pole (81), Kenai (80), Soldotna (63), Eagle River (49), Northwest Arctic Borough (42), Utqiaġvik (35), Juneau (31), Kodiak (30), Bethel Census Area (19), Chugiak (18), North Slope Borough (15), Nikiski (14), Haines (13), Kusilvak Census Area (11), Nome Census Area (10), Bethel (8), Dillingham (8), Homer (8), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (8), Seward (8), Salcha (7), Anchor Point (5), Big Lake (5), Copper River Census Area (5), Dillingham Census Area (5), Sterling (5), Valdez (5), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (5), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (5), Houston (4), Ketchikan (4), Kotzebue (4), Mat-Su Borough (4), Sitka (4), Sutton-Alpine (4), Willow (4), Delta Junction (3), Ester (3), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (3), Chevak (2), Douglas (2), Kodiak Island Borough (2), Nome (2), and one each in Chugach Census Area, Denali Borough, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Fritz Creek, Girdwood and Healy.

58 new nonresident cases were identified in:

• Wasilla: 18 with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: 9 with purposes under investigation
• Anchorage: 8 with purposes under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 1 in North Slope oil, 2 with purposes under investigation
• Juneau: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Delta Junction: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Dillingham: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
• North Pole: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Seward: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Unalaska: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Locations under investigation: 3 in tourism, 8 with purposes under investigation

No additional adjustments were made to the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 103,113 and the total number of nonresident cases to 4,566.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 2,335 resident hospitalizations and 514 deaths. Yesterday there were 19 new resident hospitalizations, 41 Alaska resident deaths and three nonresident deaths reported.

One Alaska resident death was recent:

• A female Homer resident in her 70s

40 Alaska resident deaths from April through August were identified through death certificate review:

• A male Northwest Arctic Borough resident 80 years or older
• A male Fairbanks resident 80 years or older
• A female Fairbanks resident in her 60s
• A female Fairbanks resident in her 60s
• A male Fairbanks resident in his 50s
• A male North Pole resident in his 70s
• A female Tok resident in her 70s
• A female Bethel resident in her 70s
• A male Bethel resident in his 60s
• A male Willow resident in his 60s
• A female Wasilla resident 80 years or older
• A female Wasilla resident in her 70s
• A female Wasilla resident in her 70s
• A male Wasilla resident in his 60s
• A male Wasilla resident in his 50s
• A female Wasilla resident in her 30s
• A male Palmer resident in his 60s
• A male Big Lake resident in his 70s
• A female Anchorage resident 80 years or older
• A male Anchorage resident 80 years or older
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 70s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 70s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 50s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 50s
• A female Anchorage resident in her 40s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 40s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 30s
• A male Anchorage resident in his 20s
• A male Kenai resident in his 60s
• A female Soldotna resident in her 70s
• A male Soldotna resident in his 20s
• A female Juneau resident 80 years or older
• A male Juneau resident in his 60s
• A male Juneau resident in his 50s
• A male Sitka resident in his 50s
• A male Petersburg resident in his 60s
• A female Ketchikan resident 80 years or older
• A male Ketchikan resident 80 years or older
• A female Ketchikan resident 80 years or older

Three nonresident deaths were also identified through death certificate review:

• A male nonresident in 60s died in Fairbanks
• A male nonresident in his 50s died in Fairbanks
• A male nonresident in his 50s died in Fairbanks

Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones.

NOTE: Today’s data summary includes a large batch of COVID-related deaths. Some of these deaths occurred in the spring, but most are fatalities that occurred in August. Reporting was delayed due to the cyberattack on DHSS this year. Please know that our data team and Health Analytics and Vital Records Section (HAVRS) are diligently examining death certificate reviews to identify COVID-related deaths as we come back up to speed following the cyberattack.  Please see this webpage for more information on the process used to report COVID-19 deaths: dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/covid-19/deathcounts.aspx

There are currently 217 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and six additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 223 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Forty-one of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 18.1%.

TESTING – A total of 2,996,597 tests have been conducted, with 46,156 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 9.23%.

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 973.9. 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), one area is at the moderate alert level (10-49.99) and two 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.