Alaska COVID-19 Data Summary: Apr. 13, 2022

COVID-19 DATA SUMMARY – Apr. 13, 2022

Reporting data for Apr. 5 - Apr. 12, 2022

OVERVIEW – 1,290 new cases | 7 deaths | 26 hospitalizations | 64.6% of Alaskans 5+ vaccinated

WEEKLY UPDATE - Starting Wednesday April 6, DHSS will update all COVID-19 dashboards weekly on Wednesdays. This change is part of our transition toward longer-term data reporting. Because there can be substantial day-to-day variation in data, weekly reporting is generally more helpful for understanding trends. Weekly updates are also consistent with changes being made on a national level and by other states.

For the latest on COVID-19 in Alaska, read the DHSS weekly update and DHSS data summaries: https://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/clinicalupdate.aspx

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 907-646-3322 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.

VACCINATIONS – These rates cover all Alaskan residents including those reported by the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration (DoD/VA).

71.7% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.

64.6% 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: 80.3%
• Y-K Delta Region: 77.5%
• Other Southeast Region - Northern: 74.7%
• Anchorage Region: 71.2%
• Southwest Region: 69.8%
• Other Southeast Region - Southern: 68.1%
• Fairbanks North Star Borough: 66.1%
• Northwest Region: 62.7%
• Other Interior Region: 60%
• Kenai Peninsula Region: 50.1%
• Matanuska-Susitna Region: 42.9%

CASES – DHSS today announced 1,290 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.

1,274 were residents of:  Aleutians East Borough (12 in 2 communities), Aleutians West Census Area (2), Anchor Point (2), Anchorage (437), Bethel (13), Bethel Census Area (34 in 13 communities), Bristol Bay/Lake and Peninsula Combined (15 in 4 communities), Chugiak (15), Cordova (2), Delta Junction (4), Dillingham (20), Dillingham Census Area (23 in 7 communities), Eagle River (83), Fairbanks (65), Girdwood (3), Greater Palmer Area (36), Greater Wasilla Area (72), Haines (3), Homer (6), Hoonah-Angoon and Yakutat combined (7 in 3 communities), Houston/Big Lake Area (4), Juneau (61), Kenai (10), Kenai Peninsula Borough-North (10 in 2 communities), Ketchikan (17), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (2), Kodiak (14), Kotzebue (9), Kusilvak Census Area (25 in 3 communities), Mat-Su Borough (2), Metlakatla (1), Nikiski (1), Nome (28), Nome Census Area (70 in 8 communities), North Pole (11), North Slope Borough (3), Northwest Arctic Borough (24 in 4 communities), Petersburg (9), Seward (6), Sitka (46), Skagway (3), Soldotna (22), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (3 in 2 communities), Sterling (3), Sutton-Alpine (1), Tok (4), Utqiaġvik (5), Valdez (6), Willow (3), Wrangell (13), and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (4 in 4 communities). 

Sixteen nonresident cases were identified in:

• Anchorage: 6 with purpose under investigation
• North Slope Borough: 3 with purpose 'oil'
• Fairbanks: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Juneau: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Ketchikan: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Kotzebue: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Mat-Su Borough: 1 with purpose 'other'
• Prince of Wales/Hyder: 1 with purpose under investigation
• Location under investigation: 1 with purpose seafood

Eleven resident cases and 2 nonresident cases were added to the state's overall total due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 241,959 and the total number of nonresident cases to 8,019.

HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,749 resident hospitalizations and 1,202 resident deaths.

Seven new Alaska resident hospitalizations and seven 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 Alaskan residents who died were:

• a female resident of Anchorage age 80+
• a male resident of Anchorage in his 70s
• a male resident of Anchorage in his 70s
• a male resident of Anchorage in his 40s
• a male resident of Cordova in his 70s
• a male resident of Kenai Peninsula Borough-South age 80+
• a male resident of Palmer in his 60s

Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones.

There are currently 26 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized.   Two of these patients are on a ventilator. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 2.1%.

TESTING – Data on our testing dashboard are archived and still available, but updates to testing data can now be found on a tab of the cases dashboard: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074/. DHSS is no longer reporting percent positivity or the cumulative number of tests on our dashboard. This is in part because of the increased use in at-home rapid antigen testing, where results are not reported to the state. 

COMMUNITY CASE RATE LEVELS – We encourage the public and community leaders to continue to be aware of case rates in their area.  On the dashboard, the Alert Levels Map has been replaced by a Community Case Rates Map.  This map presents the total number of new reported resident cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days for each borough/census area. 

A tab monitoring CDC COVID-19 Community Levels has been added which also considers COVID-19 impacts on hospital admissions and hospital beds.  CDC looks at the combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days — to determine the COVID-19 community level.  Learn more here.

The current statewide community case rate - based on the reported number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days – is 174.8.  For boroughs and census areas:  Six areas are at >400 cases, five areas are at 200-399 cases, ten areas are at 100-199 cases, three areas are at 50-99 cases and four areas are at 0-49 cases per 100,000.

Find case rate levels for individual boroughs and census areas by clicking on the Community Case Rates Map tab on the cases dashboard at https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074/.

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.