551 new DHS cases Wednesday in Alaska

DHSS today announced 551 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 549 are residents in: Anchorage (251), Bethel (35), Bethel Census Area (21), Wasilla (27), Kenai (26), Eagle River (25), Fairbanks (25), Soldotna (21), Kodiak (11), North Pole (11), Chugiak (10), Kusilvak Census Area (9), Palmer (9), Sterling (9), Juneau (7), Delta Junction (6), Utqiaġvik (6), Homer (5), Cordova (4), Seward (3), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (3), Big Lake (2), Fairbanks North Star Borough (2), Kenai Peninsula Borough North (2), Kotzebue (2), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (2), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (2), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (2), and one each in Bristol Bay/Lake & Peninsula Borough, Chevak, Girdwood, Ketchikan, Nikiski, North Slope Borough, Northwest Arctic Borough, Sitka, Sutton-Alpine, Tok, and Willow.

Two new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:

Anchorage: one with purpose under investigation

One with location and purpose under investigation

Four resident cases were subtracted from the dashboard through data verification procedures. This brings the total number of Alaska resident cases to 24,419 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,169.

ALERT LEVELS – The 14-day average case rates used to determine each region’s alert level have been artificially low since the Nov. 17 implementation of using the specimen collection date for cases where onset date was missing. The data team is working to recode the calculation using the report date which will eliminate the artificial drop and provide consistency to the alert levels. Currently, ALL regions are still in high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.

MODELING APP – The modeling application, which provides the Projected Epidemiological Curve, Reproductive Number and Average Daily Rate, is also temporarily unavailable while it’s being revised to take into account the changes to onset date for cases and removal of active and recovered cases.

CASES: SEX & AGES – Of the 549 Alaska residents, 271 are male, 273 are female and five are unknown. 46 are under the age of 10; 61 are aged 10-19; 106 are aged 20-29; 107 are aged 30-39; 75 are aged 40-49; 77 are aged 50-59; 49 are aged 60-69; 19 are aged 70-79, 8 are aged 80 or older, and one is unknown.

CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 573 hospitalizations and 99 deaths, with 11 new hospitalizations.

There are currently 139 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and 18 additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 157 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Fifteen of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 13.6%.

TESTING – A total of 885,558 tests have been conducted, with 22,676 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 8.26%.