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Alaska has recorded nearly 1,400 new cases of COVID-19 in the last two days of notification, as transmission of the virus continues to spread throughout the state.
The State Department of Health and Human Services reported on Friday that the transmission of COVID-19 has increased for the eighth week in a row.
The increase in cases has, according to a departmental announcement, “exceeded the capacity of public health to immediately report individual cases” and as a result resulted in an underestimation of the number of cases reported this week compared to the actual number of cases. case.
Also on Friday, the department reported that a commercial lab in Alaska had not communicated test results to the state for the past four weeks, until Wednesday, “resulting in significant underestimates of case rates. “.
“The test results have been communicated to the person tested,” the state announcement read. “Out of 13,169 tests, 1,636 were positive, including 357 positive in Anchorage and 880 positive in Mat-Su.
“As these positive tests are checked for repeats and added individually to the number of cases, cases will increase particularly in these districts over the past four weeks,” he continues. “A lot of these tests have been done in the past two weeks.”
Saturday’s case count report, which covers 24 hours on Friday, showed 656 new cases, including 639 among residents of Alaska.
Of these, 37 were residents of Fairbanks and seven were residents of the North Pole.
The state has warned that a COVID-19 patient’s residence does not necessarily mean this is where the person contracted the virus or tested positive for its presence.
Friday’s case count report, which covers Thursday’s 24 hours, showed 735 new cases. Of those, 724 were from Alaskans, of which 36 were residents of Fairbanks and six were residents of the North Pole.
Two additional COVID-related deaths were announced on Saturday, both of Anchorage residents. One was a woman in her 70s and the other a woman in her 80s. The two deaths bring the total number of deaths in Alaska from the disease or it to 120.
All regions of the state except one remain in the high-risk zone of the health department, which means a 14-day average number of cases that exceeds 10 cases per 100,000 population. Only a portion of Southeast Alaska designated as “Other Southeastern Region” fell below this level.
Chief medical officer Dr Anne Zink praised the region in a tweet on Saturday:
“Nice Job ‘Other Southeast Region” which includes the Ketchikan Gateway Borough and the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area for being the first region in Alaska to come out of red at alert level today! Keep going and hope to see you in yellow soon!
The statewide average is 79.87 cases per 100,000 population according to Saturday’s report.
The rate for the borough of Fairbanks North Star is 42.46 cases per 100,000.
Contact publisher Rod Boyce at 459-7585. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMeditor.
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