Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 73 new cases Friday as active infections drop for first time in weeks

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services on Friday reported 73 new coronavirus infections in Alaska, including three cases involving nonresidents.

The state on Friday also reported the 30th person to die with COVID-19. The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. on Thursday already announced the death, which involved a Y-K Delta resident in their 50s. Alaska has one of the lowest death rates per capita in the country.

There have been 5,403 known infections in Alaska, involving residents and nonresidents, since the pandemic arrived in March, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The active case count for residents, which tracks the number of infectious people, had been steadily rising but dropped for the first time since June, moving from 3,163 to 3,142 in Friday’s report.

Since March, 191 Alaska residents and four nonresidents have been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Forty-one people were hospitalized with COVID-19 around the state as of Friday, a slight decrease from Thursday. Five 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.

Twenty-seven of the new resident cases involved Anchorage residents, plus one in Chugiak and three in Eagle River.

Thirty-nine other cases were reported among residents around the state: four in Soldotna, one in Valdez, nine in Fairbanks, one in Big Lake, one in Palmer, three in Wasilla, one in Nome, seven in Kotzebue, one in Juneau, and one in Sitka.

Among smaller communities, there were three cases in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, four in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, two in Nome Census Area, and one in North Slope Borough.

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

The state’s testing positivity rate reported Friday was 1.91% over a seven-day rolling average.

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