Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Dec. 20, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Dec. 20, 2021

Reporting data for Dec. 17-19, 2021

OVERVIEW – 428 new cases | 0 deaths | 65 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 60.1% of Alaskans 5+ 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 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 – 67.2% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

60.1% 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: 77.2%
• YK-Delta Region: 73%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 72%
• Southwest Region: 67.2%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 64.2%
• Anchorage Region: 61.5%
• Northwest Region: 58.6%
• Other Interior Region: 57.1%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 49.3%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 47.4%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 40.2%

CASES – DHSS today announced no deaths of Alaska residents and 428 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.  

422 were residents of: Anchorage (165), Greater Wasilla Area (38), Fairbanks (31), Nome Census Area (21), Juneau (20), Eagle River (11), North Pole (11), Homer (10), Soldotna (10), Kusilvak Census Area (9), Greater Palmer Area (8), Bethel (6), Chugiak (6), Ketchikan (6), Valdez (6), Bethel Census Area (5), Northwest Arctic Borough (5), Hooper Bay (4), Kenai (4), Nome (4), Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area (4), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (4), Sitka (3), Sterling (3), Sutton-Alpine (3), Anchor Point (2), Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (2), Houston/Big Lake Area (2), Kodiak (2), Seward (2), Willow (2), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (2), and one each in Craig, Delta Junction, Dillingham Census Area, Girdwood, Haines, Kenai Peninsula Borough-North, Kotzebue, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, North Slope Borough, and Southeast Fairbanks Census Area. The location of one resident case is under investigation.

6 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Fairbanks: 2 with purpose under investigation
• Northwest Arctic Borough: 1 with purpose mining industry
• Wasilla: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Anchorage: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Juneau: 1 with purpose under investigation

Four resident cases and one nonresident case were subtracted from the state's overall total due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 149,591 and the total number of nonresident cases to 5,471.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,204 resident hospitalizations and 915 resident deaths. No new Alaska resident hospitalizations or 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.

There are currently 65 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and five additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 70 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Eleven of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 5.5%.

TESTING –A total of 3,646,311 tests have been conducted, with 29,196 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 3.41%.

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 159.1. For boroughs and census areas: 21 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), 2 areas are at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), 2 areas are at the moderate alert level (10-49.99) and 3 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.