Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Jan. 7, 2022

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Jan. 7, 2022

Reporting data for Jan. 5 - Jan. 6, 2022

OVERVIEW – 3,640 new cases | 1 death | 70 hospitalizations | Statewide alert level: high | 57.7% of Alaskans 5+ vaccinated

Note: Protective measures against the Omicron variant remain the same as for the other COVID variants. Layering protective measures, including masking, handwashing, physical distancing, and testing help to reduce transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Using a self-test before and after travel and large gatherings is advised. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) encourages Alaskans to talk with a healthcare provider or call 646-3322 about getting the COVID-19 vaccine to reduce the severity of illness if they haven’t already done so and to get boosted if 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 – 63.1% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

57.7% 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: 73.8%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 72.6%
• Southwest Region: 68%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 65.2%
• Anchorage Region: 62.3%
• Northwest Region: 59.6%
• Other Interior Region: 57.5%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 49.7%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 48%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 40.7%

CASES – DHSS today announced one death of an Alaska residents and 3,640 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.  

3,534 were residents of:  Anchorage (2,062), Fairbanks (240), Juneau (199), Kodiak (144), Eagle River (128), Greater Wasilla Area (87), North Pole  (53), Sitka (42), Greater Palmer Area (38), Bethel (31), Kusilvak Census Area (29 in 5 communities), Bethel Census Area (27 in 11 communities), Soldotna (27), Metlakatla (26), Nome Census Area (26 in 10 communities), Northwest Arctic Borough (24 in 8 communities), Chugiak (23), Homer (21), Ketchikan (21), Dutch Harbor (20), Nome (18), Unalaska (16), Valdez (16), Girdwood (14), North Slope Borough (14 in 3 communities), Kenai (13), Wrangell (13), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (12 in 7 communities), Haines (11), Kotzebue (11), Utqiaġvik (11), Bristol Bay/Lake and Peninsula Combined (9 in 4 communities), Craig (9), Hoonah-Angoon and Yakutat combined (8), Kenai Peninsula Borough-North (8 in 3 communities), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (8), Seward (8), Sterling (8), Copper River Census Area (6 in 3 communities), Dillingham (6), Delta Junction (5), Kenai Peninsula Borough-South (5 in 2 communities), Willow (5), Aleutians East Borough (4 in 2 communities), Hooper Bay (4), Anchor Point (3), Dillingham Census Area (3 in 2 communities), Aleutians West Census Area (2 in 2 communities), Ester (2), Houston/ Big Lake Area (2), Kodiak Island Borough (2), Nikiski (2), Petersburg (2), Sutton-Alpine (2), and one each in Mat-Su Borough, Skagway, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, and Tok.

106 nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 2 with purpose seafood, 58 with purpose under investigation
• Fairbanks: 12 with purpose under investigation
• Prudhoe Bay: 7 with purpose oil, 1 with purpose under investigation
• Southeast Fairbanks Census Area: 6 with purpose mining, 1 with purpose under investigation
• Juneau: 3 with purpose under investigation
• Unalaska: 3 with purpose under investigation
• Wasilla: 2 with purpose under investigation
• Northwest Arctic Borough: 2 with purpose under investigation
• Kodiak: 2 with purpose under investigation
• Hoonah-Angoon and Yakutat Combined: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Bristol Bay/Lake and Peninsula Combined: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Palmer: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Wrangell: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Sitka: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kotzebue: 1 with purpose under investigation  

31 resident cases and four nonresident cases were added to the state's overall total due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 158,436 and the total number of nonresident cases to 5,917.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,283 resident hospitalizations and 948 resident deaths. Two new resident hospitalizations and one Alaska resident death 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 resident who died was a male resident of Hoonah-Angoon and Yakutat Combined in his 70s.  

Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.  

There are currently 70 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and four additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 74 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 5.6%.

TESTING – A total of 3,741,734 tests have been conducted, with 32,869 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 18.35%.

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 880.8. For boroughs and census areas: 27 areas are at the high alert level (>100 cases), no areas are at the substantial alert level (50-99.99), no areas are at the moderate alert level (10-49.99) and one 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.