Alaska Reports 2 Deaths, Over 800 COVID-19 Cases, Slight Increase in Hospitalizations

Through Daily News from Anchorage

Updated: 4 hours ago Posted: 4 hours ago

Alaska reported 839 cases of COVID-19 and two additional virus-related deaths on Friday, state data showed.

At the end of this week, the daily number of COVID-19 cases in Alaska appeared to stabilize slightly compared to previous weeks of steadily increasing cases. However, the number of cases remains well above last winter’s peak, and on Friday the number of hospitalized COVID-positive patients edged up as the state’s percentage of positive tests hit an all-time high.

State health officials said this week they are cautiously optimistic about the latest trends in virus data, but transmission of the virus is still rampant in the state and the pandemic is far from over. .

On Friday, the average test positivity rate in Alaska over the past week hit a record 10.12%. This means that about one in 10 COVID-19 tests taken came back positive. Epidemiologists say a rate above 5% may indicate widespread transmission in the community and a need for more testing.

Meanwhile, Anchorage officials said this week that virus testing efforts are now slashed – including cutting hours at testing sites and changing guidelines on who should get tested – due to ‘a dramatic increase in the number of tests sought and a lack of funds to pay for them. Anchorage’s COVID-19 outbreak increased through the end of the summer, taking the municipality’s case count to pandemic highs as more people were tested.

Alaska’s case rate over the past week is also still the highest in the country – 779 cases per 100,000 population – and well above the second-worst state, Montana, which has a rate of 593 cases. per 100,000, according to the CDC.

As of Friday, there were 186 people hospitalized with the virus in the state, including 30 people on ventilators. Hospitals say that number does not always include people past their infectious period who still need hospital care.

Alaska hospitals continue to report being overloaded and understaffed.

Twenty healthcare facilities across Alaska have activated Crisis Care Standards, giving them the ability to prioritize care for patients most likely to survive if limited resources make that decision necessary.

In practice, this means that state hospitals assess what they have the capacity to do each day and, in some cases, postpone certain “elective” but still urgent procedures.

[Elective procedures become a flashpoint in the debate over Anchorage’s hospital capacity]

Of the 839 cases reported by the state on Friday, 825 involved residents and 14 non-residents.

The newly reported deaths involved a Fairbanks woman in her 60s and a non-resident man in her 50s who tested positive in Anchorage. A total of 570 Alaskans and 22 non-residents of the state have died from the virus. Alaska is 29th in the country for its 7-day per capita death rate. Its death rate since the start of the pandemic is the third lowest.

As of Friday, 63.7% of Alaskans aged 12 and over had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In August, just 19% of all COVID-19-related hospitalizations and a third of all cases were in people who had been vaccinated, according to a state report released this week.