COVID-19 positive rate in Alaska continues to drop

Some nonessential businesses across the state slowly started reopening on April 24. Others in Anchorage followed on April 27. During his latest daily COVID-19 press conference Wednesday in Anchorage, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said based on the numbers, he believes Alaska is on the right path.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” Dunleavy said.

The Alaska Department of Health and Human Services reported four new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, two in Anchorage and two in Eagle River. The state total was at 355, as of Wednesday. There were no new hospitalizations and the number of recovered cases hit 240.

“The majority of the folks who were positive are now recovered,” Dunleavy said. “This is good news.”

Dunleavy said state officials will continue to focus on the numbers as businesses continue to try to reopen weeks after state mandates closed non-essential businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The feedback I’m getting is folks are happy to get out, folks are happy to be going to their favorite establishments,” Dunleavy said. “We’re going to watch this. We’re going to be looking at some math and some algorithms so we can chart things out in the future to make sure we’re on the right course.

Nearly 20,000 COVID-19 tests have been administered, with a new total of 19,119.

“We’re continuing to see an increase in our testing capacity,” Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink said via teleconference Wednesday. “A lot of that is coming from hospitals. They’re now getting the reagents. We really appreciate all of the work they are doing.”

The percentage of positive tests also dropped to 1.86 percent.

“The total positive rate continues to decrease, which is great,” Zink said.

The rate had been as high as 3.5 in mid-April.

There are 21 total COVID-19 cases in the Mat-Su Borough.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.