Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Sept. 29, 2021

Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Sept. 29, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Sept. 28, 2021

OVERVIEW1,009 new cases | 4 deaths | 207 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 60% 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 – 63.1% of Alaskans age 12 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

60% 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 ages 12 and older by region:

  • Juneau Region: 80.3%
  • Other Southeast Region - Northern: 79.7%
  • YK-Delta Region: 78.1%
  • Southwest Region: 69.7%
  • Northwest Region: 69.5%
  • Other Southeast Region - Southern: 66.7%
  • Anchorage Region: 64%
  • Other Interior Region: 58.9%
  • Fairbanks North Star Borough: 51.3%
  • Kenai Peninsula Region: 49.9%
  • Matanuska-Susitna Region: 41.6%

CASES – DHSS today announced four deaths of Alaska residents and 1,009 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska yesterday. 

976 were residents of:  Anchorage (345), Wasilla (112), Fairbanks (109), Eagle River (42), North Pole (41), Palmer (41), Juneau (28), Kenai (18), Bethel Census Area (17), Valdez (17), Chugiak (15), Soldotna (15), Seward (13), Kodiak (12), Bethel (10), Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (10), Haines (10), Homer (10), Anchor Point (9), Sitka (9), Ketchikan (8), Kusilvak Census Area (8), Delta Junction (6), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (6), Utqiaġvik (5), Big Lake (4), Craig (4), Mat-Su Borough (4), Northwest Arctic Borough (4), Chugach Census Area (3), Dillingham Census Area (3), Fairbanks North Star Borough (3), Nome (3), Unalaska (3), Wrangell (3), Douglas (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough - North (2), Kotzebue (2), Petersburg (2), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2), Sterling (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2), and one each in Copper River Census Area, Fritz Creek, Houston, Kenai Peninsula Borough - South, Metlakatla, Nome Census Area, North Slope Borough, Skagway, Willow, and one unknown location.

33 new nonresident cases were identified in:

  • Fairbanks: 11 with purposes under investigation
  • Anchorage: 3 with purposes under investigation
  • Kenai: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Prudhoe Bay: 2 in North Slope oil industry
  • Sitka: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Wasilla: 2 with purposes under investigation
  • Ketchikan: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Valdez: 1 with purpose under investigation
  • Location under investigation: 9 with purposes under investigation

Eight resident cases were subtracted from the cases dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 108,608 and the total number of nonresident cases to 4,784.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 2,393 resident hospitalizations and 546 deaths. Yesterday there were 22 new resident hospitalizations and four Alaska resident deaths reported. Please see this webpage for more information on the process used to report COVID-19 deaths: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/covid-19/deathcounts.aspx

All four Alaska residents died recently:

  • Female Anchorage resident in her 70s
  • Female Anchorage resident in her 60s
  • Male Anchorage resident in his 40s
  • Male Anchorage resident in his 40s

Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones.

There are currently 207 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and seven additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 214 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Thirty-nine of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 18.1%.

TESTING – A total of 3,046,061 tests have been conducted, with 42,740 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 9.2%.

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 1,167.2. For boroughs and census areas: 26 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 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 following dashboard at www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/ddd52524412b41b690b82b5618735f9e

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.