Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Dec. 27, 2021

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Dec. 27, 2021

Reporting data for Dec. 22-26, 2021

OVERVIEW – 848 new cases | 0 deaths | 57 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 60.3% of Alaskans 5+ vaccinated

Note:  Protective measures against the Omicron variant remain the same as for the other COVID virus variants. 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. Using a self-test before gatherings is also advised. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) encourages Alaskans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven’t already done so and to get boosted if they’re eligible. To check variant data for Alaska, please check the Alaska Coronavirus Variants Dashboard at akvariants.github.io.

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 – 67.5% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

60.3% 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: 77.9%
• YK-Delta Region: 73.4%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 72.7%
• Southwest Region: 67.5%
• Anchorage Region: 65.9%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 65.4%
• Northwest Region: 59%
• Other Interior Region: 57.2%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 57.1%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 48.5%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 41.1%

CASES – DHSS today announced no deaths of Alaska residents, no nonresident deaths and 848 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.  

794 were residents of:  Anchorage (266), Fairbanks (86), Juneau (64), Greater Wasilla Area (57), Ketchikan (33), Sitka (24), Eagle River (22), Kusilvak Census Area (20 in 3 communities), North Pole (19), Greater Palmer Area (18), Homer (18), Soldotna (14), Kodiak (11), Hooper Bay (10), Nome Census Area (10 in 4 communities), Bethel Census Area (9 in 5 communities), Hoonah-Angoon and Yakutat combined (8 in 3 communities), Northwest Arctic Borough (8 in 4 communities), Anchor Point (6), Petersburg (6), Copper River Census Area (5 in 3 communities), Delta Junction (5), Girdwood (5), Houston/ Big Lake Area (5), Sterling (5), Chugiak (4), Dillingham Census Area (4 in 2 communities), Kenai (4), Kotzebue (4), Bethel (3), Bristol Bay/Lake and Peninsula Combined (3 in 3 communities), Mat-Su Borough (3), Nome (3), North Slope Borough (3 in 3 communities), Willow (3), Craig (2), Dillingham (2), Dutch Harbor (2), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2 in 2 communities), Unalaska (2), and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Cordova, Denali Borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough-North, Kenai Peninsula Borough-South, Kodiak Island Borough, Metlakatla, Nikiski, Seward, Skagway, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Sutton-Alpine, Utqiagvik, Valdez, Wrangell, and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

54 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 2 with purpose 'other', 12 with purpose under investigation
• Kodiak: 11 with purpose under investigation
• Southeast Fairbanks Census Area: 10 with purpose mining industry
• Wasilla: 4 with purpose under investigation
• Juneau:  1 with purpose 'other', 3 with purpose under investigation
• Fairbanks: 3 with purpose under investigation
• Willow: 3 with purpose 'other'
• Kotzebue: 2 with purpose under investigation
• Soldotna: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Homer: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: 1 with purpose under investigation

34 resident cases and one nonresident case were added to the state's overall total due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 150,643 and the total number of nonresident cases to 5,534.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,249 resident hospitalizations and 945 resident deaths. One new resident hospitalization and no 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.

There are currently 57 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 59 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Fourteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 6.7%.

TESTING – A total of 3,672,211 tests have been conducted, with 18,525 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.89%.

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 139.9. For boroughs and census areas: 19 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), 4 areas are at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), 4 areas are at the moderate alert level (10-49.99) and 1 area is 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.