Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: State reports 86 new cases as YKHC announces a new death

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services on Thursday reported 86 new coronavirus infections in Alaska, including two cases involving nonresidents.

Later Thursday, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. announced that a Y-K Delta resident in their 50s died Thursday at the hospital in Bethel of complications due to COVID-19.

The newly announced fatality, which is not yet reflected in state data, marks the 30th death of an Alaskan with COVID-19 since the pandemic arrived in the state in March.

The state’s death rate — 4 per 100,000 — remains the second lowest in the nation after Hawaii’s, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have been 5,332 known infections in Alaska, involving residents and nonresidents, since the pandemic arrived in March, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

Since March, 187 Alaska residents and four nonresidents have been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Forty-five people were hospitalized with COVID-19 around the state as of Thursday, the same as Wednesday. Six more hospitalized patients were being tested for the coronavirus.

Of the new cases reported, it wasn’t clear how many were showing symptoms of the virus when they tested positive.

Forty-one of the new cases involved Anchorage residents, plus two in Eagle River.

Forty-one other cases were reported among residents around the state: 10 in Fairbanks, four in Palmer, four in Wasilla, four in Juneau, three in Kotzebue, two in Kenai, two in Kodiak, two in Utqiagvik, two in Bethel, one in North Pole, one in Douglas, one in Big Lake, one in Houston, one in Nome, and one in Ketchikan.

Among smaller communities, there was a case in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area and one in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

There were also two nonresident cases: one in Juneau, and one in an unspecified region of the state.

As of Thursday, 3,163 residents and 627 nonresidents were known to have been infected with coronavirus in Alaska. Another 1,328 residents and 185 nonresidents were presumed recovered and out of isolation.

The state’s testing positivity rate reported Thursday was 2.09% over a seven-day rolling average.

— Annie Berman

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