Alaska's COVID-19 rates highest in the nation and climbing

MAT-SU — The Department of Health and Social Services held a press conference on Sept. 24 to address the massive backlog of COVID-19 cases that are being inputted to the state dashboard, showing a dramatic spike in the spread of the coronavirus that has vaulted Alaska to have the highest rate of cases in the nation, which continues to climb.

The threshold for COVID-19 infections reaching an alert level of “high” is 100 cases per 100,000 residents over the previous seven days. The Mat-Su has over 17 times the amount needed to reach the “high” alert level with a case rate of 1,722.2 per 100,000 residents over the last seven days and 1,848 cases reported over the last week. On Friday, DHSS officials and subject matter experts from the state addressed the backlogged cases, deaths and hospitalization data as well as the continued call to Alaskans to employ measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Our current COVID incidents is the highest in the nation by a substantial margin,” said DHSS Commissioner Adam Crum. “It is a mix of current and older cases, but that does not diminish the fact that community spread of COVID-19 is very high. Cases in Alaska continue to climb and so we want all Alaskans to realize that, that while we are posting a very big number today it is a mix of them, but it also means to recognize COVID-19 is with us and there are tools and mitigations that we can do together and for each other in order to drive down these cases and to protect our fragile health care infrastructure.”

There were 1,719 cases reported Friday, 1,009 reported Saturday, 1,294 reported Sunday and another 1,575 reported on Monday. On Friday, 41 additional deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported dating as far back as April, with 31 of those deaths occurring in August. There have now been 532 Alaskan residents who have died due to COVID-19 and 215 Alaskans are currently hospitalized with the virus.

“Cases from September continue to convey that this is the highest incidence of cases we’ve ever experienced, straining our public health infrastructure, our hospitals, our businesses and our economy,” said Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink. “The vast majority of covid cases continue to be in unvaccinated individuals and a reminder that we are not powerless against this disease.”

Across Alaska, only 18 Intensive Care Unit beds are available and 21.4 % of hospitalized persons are hospitalized with COVID-19. There are 36 Alaskans currently on ventilators.

In the Mat-Su, 471 new cases were reported on Monday following 419 reported on Friday, 153 on Saturday, and 280 on Sunday. On Monday, 308 cases were reported out of the five zip codes that are attributed to Wasilla alone with 133 in Palmer and 12 in Sutton. There are only 72 total beds in use out of 135 total beds at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, 39 of which are in use by patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The 39 hospitalized COVID patients at MSRMC account for 41.9 % of all patients at MSRMC and 12 require ventilators. There have now been 82 Mat-Su residents who have died due to COVID-19, 12 which were reported in August and four in September. There are currently no ICU beds available at MSRMC.

“When we are having a storm, be it a snow storm outside of our back door or a COVID storm that we’re having right now, we need to add layers of protection so vaccination is key. Any one 12 and above who has not received a COVID-19 vaccine, we strongly urge you to do it today. This is our best protection against the virus,” said Zink.

Across Alaska, 58.9 % of residents are fully vaccinated and another 24,778 have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and are awaiting their second dose. In the Mat-Su, 41.2 % of residents are fully vaccinated and another 3,973 are awaiting their second dose, leaving 54.3 % of all Valley residents over the age of 12 who have yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccination.

“We have the most safe and robust process in this country in the world for looking at vaccines,” said Zink. “They’re probably the safest thing that we do in medicine, safer than most over the counter medications that we use.”