Alaska reports death of Anchorage man with virus and 151 new cases statewide

Alaska reported another death tied to the coronavirus as cases continued to surge upward on Saturday, particularly in Anchorage.

An Anchorage man with underlying conditions in his 50s is the 24th Alaskan who has died with COVID-19, according to the state’s health department.

Statewide, the department recorded 151 new cases on Saturday, including 147 residents and four non-Alaskans. In Anchorage, 109 residents tested positive, along with one Eagle River resident.

That’s the second-highest number of cases recorded in a single day for the municipality: On July 26, the state reported 158 new cases among residents of Anchorage, Eagle River and Chugiak. That day marked a record for new cases statewide — 231 — due in part to a backlog in entering new case data as well as transmission from gatherings and multiple large outbreaks in the seafood industry, according to the state’s health department.

The new cases reported Saturday raise the total number of active cases statewide to 2,706 among both residents and nonresidents while 1,097 people are listed as recovered, state data shows. Since the start of the pandemic, 3,136 Alaskans and 691 non-Alaskans have tested positive for COVID-19.

In the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, there were nine new cases involving Wasilla residents, eight among Palmer residents and one case each involving people from Sutton-Alpine, Willow and a smaller community in the Mat-Su.

Fairbanks saw five new cases among residents while Homer saw six, and there was one case each recorded among residents of Bethel, Cordova, Kenai, Ketchikan, Sitka and Soldotna.

Nonresident cases reported Saturday include a mining industry worker plus another nonresident in Juneau, a seafood industry worker in the Kodiak Island Borough and an individual in Anchorage.

The largest outbreaks in the state have involved workers in the seafood industry. In total, there are 248 people in either quarantine or isolation staying in Anchorage after recent industry outbreaks, according to the Anchorage Health Department.

One hundred and thirty people with COVID-19 who work at an OBI Seafoods processing plant in Seward are isolating in the Municipality of Anchorage. An additional 91 people with COVID-19 who were on board an American Seafoods factory trawler are also in isolation while 28 others from the boat are in quarantine in Anchorage, according to the city health department.

By the end of Friday, there were 23 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, along with 14 others who were under investigation for the disease. Since March, a total of 133 people with the virus required hospitalization at some point.

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