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Sunday’s case count comes after several weeks of lower daily case counts. Alaska saw a spike in cases in November and early December, which raised concerns about hospital capacity and ultimately led to a drop of around a month in Anchorage. The number of cases began to decline in December.
As infections continue to decline steadily, Acting Anchorage Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson announced last week that the city would ease restrictions on COVID-19. A new emergency ordinance will come into effect on Monday that will allow more people to enter bars and restaurants and ease the size limits for gatherings.
Despite the lowest numbers in January, Alaska is in the highest alert category based on the current rate of infection per capita. In western Alaska, the number of cases remains high and is even increasing in some rural villages experiencing significant outbreaks of COVID-19.
The seafood industry has once again been hit with multiple outbreaks among ships and processing facilities in the Aleutian Islands. Some facilities temporarily closed their doors when the winter fishing season began.
Hospitalizations have fallen along with the number of infections and are now less than a third of their level during the peak in November and December. As of Sunday, there were 38 people with COVID-19 in hospitals statewide. Four other patients are believed to be carriers of the virus.
Health officials are urging Alaskans to continue taking the pandemic seriously, even as the number of cases has fallen. Scientists at the state’s public health labs confirmed last week that a highly contagious variant of the virus reached Alaska last month.
The vaccine reached Alaska in mid-December. When the state released the most recent data on Friday, 90,777 people – about 12% of Alaska’s population – had been vaccinated, according to the state’s Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard. This is almost double the national average of 6.9%.
Healthcare workers, nursing home staff and residents were the first to receive the vaccine. In early January, the state said Alaskans over the age of 65 were now eligible, although meeting slots were limited and filled up quickly.
Thousands of new vaccine appointments were posted on the state’s website this week. Seniors and other eligible healthcare workers can call 907-646-3322 for assistance in making an appointment in February.
Of the 130 cases reported Sunday among Alaskan residents, 41 were in Anchorage, one in Chugiak and two in Eagle River; one was in Homer, one in Nikiski, one in Seward and one in Soldotna; two were at Kodiak; 12 were in Fairbanks and two in the North Pole; one was in Palmer and six in Wasilla; one was at Nome; one was in Kotzebue; three were in Douglas and two in Juneau; one was in Ketchikan; one was in Sitka; one was in Wrangell; four were in Unalaska; and eight were at Bethel.
Of the communities with fewer than 1,000 individuals not named for privacy, one was in the Kodiak Island Borough; four were in the Copper River region of the Valdez-Cordova census area; two were in the southeast Fairbanks census area; two were in the Yukon-Koyukuk census region; one was in the Matanuska-Susitna district; two were in the Northwestern Arctic Borough; 16 were in the Bethel census area; and nine were in the Kusilvak census area.
Seven infections have been identified among non-residents, including one in Anchorage, one in the eastern Aleutian borough and two in Unalaska. The state health department was still investigating the scene in three of the cases.
While people can be tested more than once, each case reported by the state’s health department represents only one person.
State data does not specify whether people who test positive for COVID-19 have symptoms. More than half of the country’s infections are transmitted by asymptomatic people, according to CDC estimates.
Over the past week, 2.39% of all tests done statewide came back positive.
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