17 COVID deaths in Alaska Tuesday; 140 new cases

DHSS today announced 17 deaths of Alaska residents and 140 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 111 were residents in: Anchorage (54), Palmer (11), Wasilla (11), Fairbanks (8), Eagle River (5), Aleutians East Borough (3), Kenai (3), North Pole (3), Big Lake (2), Chugiak (2), Juneau(2), Soldotna (2) and one each in Ester, Homer, Kodiak, Unalaska and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

Twenty-nine new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

Aleutians East Borough: 23 in seafood industry

Anchorage: one in travel; one with purpose under investigation

Juneau: one in mining industry; one with purpose under investigation

Unalaska: one in seafood industry; one with purpose under investigation

Four resident cases and one nonresident case were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 52,775 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,819.

ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 20.44 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. One region is at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and two regions are at low alert with minimal transmission.

High (>10 cases/100,000)

YK-Delta Region: 114.29 cases per 100,000

Southwest Region: 24.47 cases per 100,000

Matanuska-Susitna Region: 21.61 cases per 100,000

Anchorage Municipality: 18.65 cases per 100,000

Other Interior Region: 18.28 cases per 100,000

Fairbanks North Star Borough: 16.76 cases per 100,000

Northwest Region: 15.1 cases per 100,000

Juneau City and Borough: 13.85 cases per 100,000

Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)

Kenai Peninsula Borough: 7.47 cases per 100,000

Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)

Other Southeast Region - Southern: 4.3 cases per 100,000

Other Southeast Region - Northern: 3.49 cases per 100,000

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 111 Alaska residents, 53 are male and 58 are female. Six are under the age of 10; 18 are aged 10-19; 16 are aged 20-29; 19 are aged 30-39; 20 are aged 40-49; 16 are aged 50-59; 14 are aged 60-69; one is aged 70-79 and one is aged 80 or older.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,183 hospitalizations and 277 deaths, with four new hospitalizations and 17 deaths reported yesterday. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones.

All 17 deaths were identified through death certificate review:

A male Bethel Census Area resident in his 80s

A female Bethel Census Area resident in her 70s

A female Anchorage resident in her 90s

A female Anchorage resident in her 90s

A female Anchorage resident in her 90s

A male Anchorage resident in his 90s

A female Anchorage resident in her 80s

A male Anchorage resident in his 70s

A male Anchorage resident in his 70s

A male Anchorage resident in his 50s

A male Anchorage resident in his 50s

A male Anchorage resident in his 40s

A male Palmer resident in his 80s

A male Wasilla resident in his 80s

A female Soldotna resident in her 60s

A male Ketchikan resident in his 50s

A female Alaska resident in her 60s died out of state

There are currently 42 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and seven additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 49 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Ten of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 4.6%.

TESTING – A total of 1,511,785 tests have been conducted, with 29,986 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.37%.

VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 96,858 dose #1 and 28,911 dose #2 COVID-19 vaccinations given for a total of 125,770 doses administered in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard.

ALASKA PIONEER HOME UPDATE – Since the last update on Jan. 26, one additional case of COVID-19 has been identified in a staff member at the Ketchikan Pioneer Home where they are conducting twice weekly testing of staff and residents. All other homes continue to conduct regular testing of residents and staff and are developing new visitation plans. Anchorage will start visitation for the first time tomorrow, Feb. 3. Fairbanks and Juneau will hold second dose clinics next week; the other four homes have already conducted at least two vaccination clinics.

TAKE ACTION – Vaccines are being distributed throughout Alaska but we all still need to maintain our COVID-19 protective measures to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy: coronavirus.dhss.alaska.gov