Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Dec. 8, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Dec. 8, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Dec. 6-7, 2021

OVERVIEW – 441 new cases | 3 deaths | 76 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 56% of Alaskans 5+ vaccinated

NOTE – Please note that beginning Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, DHSS will be updating data on the Alaska COVID-19 Information Hub three times weekly (Monday, Wednesday and Friday excluding holidays) instead of five times weekly (Monday through Friday excluding holidays). DHSS is making this change as a transition toward less daily reporting. Weekly or monthly data is generally more helpful for understanding trends as there can be substantial day-to-day variation in daily case reporting.

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 cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html. Vaccine is now available for ages 5 and older. The rates listed below reflect the percentage of Alaskans age 5 and older reported as vaccinated.  

VACCINATIONS – 62% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

56% of Alaskans 5 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 5 and older by region:

• Juneau Region: 77%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 71%
• YK-Delta Region: 70%
• Southwest Region: 66%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 63%
• Anchorage Region: 61%
• Northwest Region: 57%
• Other Interior Region: 56%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 49%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 47%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 40%

CASES – DHSS today announced three deaths of Alaska residents and 441 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.  

434 were residents of:  Anchorage (161), Greater Wasilla Area (52), Fairbanks (36), Ketchikan (29), Greater Palmer Area (20), Juneau (15), Bethel Census Area (11 in 6 communities), Eagle River (10), Hooper Bay (9), Nome (9), Kodiak (8), Sitka (8), Dillingham (7), Houston/Big Lake Area (6), Nome Census Area (5 in 2 communities), Chugiak (4), Homer (4), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (4), Willow (4), Bristol Bay/Lake and Peninsula Combined (3 in 2 communities), North Pole (3), North Slope Borough (3 in 3 communities), Northwest Arctic Borough (3 in 2 communities), Delta Junction (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough- North (2), Kusilvak Census Area (2 in 2 communities), Soldotna (2), and one each in Aleutians West Census Area, Anchor Point, Bethel, Chevak, Copper River Census Area, Dillingham Census Area, Girdwood, Kotzebue, Petersburg, Sterling, Valdez, and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.    

7 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Wasilla: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Fairbanks: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Petersburg: 1 with purpose under investigation
  

Two resident cases were subtracted and one nonresident case was added due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 147,535 and the total number of nonresident cases to 5,442.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,138 resident hospitalizations and 856 resident deaths. 21 new resident hospitalizations and three Alaska resident deaths were reported. 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.

The Alaska residents who died were:

• a male resident of Anchorage in his 50s
• a female resident of Kenai in her 70s
• a male resident of Kodiak in his 60s

Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones.  

There are currently 76 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and three additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 79 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Eight of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 6.5%.

TESTING –A total of 3,580,139 tests have been conducted, with 28,824 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.5%.

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 224.2.  For boroughs and census areas: 22 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 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 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. Alert levels are provided to show trends and patterns over time as there can be substantial day-to-day variation in reporting of cases to DHSS. Alert levels show how widespread the virus is in a community relative to its population size and are a good tool to determine weekly trends for specific geographic areas. 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.