Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Dec. 13, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Dec. 13, 2021

Reporting data for 12 a.m. - 11:59 p.m. Dec. 10-12, 2021

OVERVIEW – 422 new cases | 1 death | 63 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 56.6% of Alaskans 5+ vaccinated

NOTE – Today, the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been detected in an Anchorage resident. The case was identified today through genomic sequencing performed at the Alaska State Public Health Laboratory from a person who recently tested positive in Anchorage following international travel in November. Alaska now joins at least 30 other states and more than 60 countries that have already detected the Omicron variant.

Protective measures against the variant remain the same as for the other COVID virus variants. The Anchorage Health Department and the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services encourage Alaskans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven’t already done so and to get boosted if you’re eligible. Layering on other protective measures, including masking, handwashing, physical distancing and testing can also help to reduce transmission of the COVID-19 virus, including Omicron. If you test positive, please talk to your doctor to see if you might be eligible and could benefit from monoclonal antibody treatment.

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.

56.6% 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: 76.9%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 71.8%
• YK-Delta Region: 71.8%
• Southwest Region: 66.4%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 63.8%
• Anchorage Region: 61.1%
• Northwest Region: 57.9%
• Other Interior Region: 56.7%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 49%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 47.1%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 39.8%

CASES – DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska resident and 422 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.  

416 were residents of:  Anchorage (131), Greater Wasilla Area (49), Juneau (23), Ketchikan (21), Fairbanks (20), Nome Census Area (18 in 3 communities), Bethel Census Area (16 in 4 communities), Greater Palmer Area (15), Homer (14), Eagle River (13), Sitka (13), Northwest Arctic Borough ( 9 in 2 communities), Hooper Bay (7), Houston/Big Lake Area (7), Kenai (7), Chugiak (6), Kodiak (6), Willow (4), Copper River Census Area (3 in 2 communities), Dillingham (3), Nome (3), North Pole (3), North Slope Borough (3 in 3 communities), Sterling (3), Girdwood (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough- North (2), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (2), Nikiski (2), Petersburg (2), Sutton-Alpine (2), and one each in Bethel, Mat-Su Borough, Metlakatla, Seward, Soldotna, Tok , and Wrangell.

5 nonresident cases were identified in:

• North Slope Borough: 2 in North Slope oil industry
• Wasilla: 2 with purposes under investigation
• Anchorage: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Juneau: 1 with purpose under investigation
  

Eleven resident cases and one nonresident case were subtracted due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 148,380 and the total number of nonresident cases to 5,455.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,149 resident hospitalizations and 857 resident deaths. Five new resident hospitalizations and one Alaska resident death was 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 resident who died was a male resident of Ketchikan in his 60s.  Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.   

There are currently 63 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 68 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 5.3%.

TESTING –A total of 3,606,719 tests have been conducted, with 30,818 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3.57%.

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 175.3.  For boroughs and census areas: 17 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), five areas are at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), four 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.