Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 66 new cases reported Sunday and 1 new death

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Alaska reported 66 new cases of COVID-19 in residents on Sunday and one new death. No new cases were reported in non-residents.

Since Thursday, officials reported the deaths of three Alaskans with COVID-19: One was a resident of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta whose death was reported by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. on Thursday, and the other was a North Pole man in his 80s whose death was announced by the state Friday.

So far, 32 Alaskans with the virus have died since the start of the pandemic.

Active COVID-19 infections among Alaska residents ticked up marginally from 3,145 on Saturday to 3,150 on Sunday, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. Friday was the first time there has been a drop in active resident cases in several weeks. Another 631 nonresident cases are also considered active.

In total, 4,741 Alaska residents and 817 nonresidents have tested positive for COVID-19 since March.

There were 39 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and nine others awaiting test results by Sunday, state data showed. Alaska has 153 intensive care unit beds, which are used for the state’s sickest patients, and state data showed that 82 were in use statewide by the end of the weekend.

While hospitalizations for COVID-19 have not overwhelmed the state’s health care capacity, they are still going up as are deaths from the illness, the state’s health department said this week.

The state is also seeing a “rapid increase” in new cases of COVID-19 among Alaska residents, the department said in a summary report on cases that occurred between Aug. 9 and 15.

New cases reported by the state on Saturday included 26 cases in Anchorage, two in Eagle River and one each in Girdwood and Chugiak.

The state reported another 40 cases among residents from elsewhere in Alaska: 8 in Wasilla, four in Palmer, two in Kenai, one in Soldotna, 11 in Fairbanks, six in Juneau and one in Bethel. Among smaller communities in the state, there was one resident case each in the Bethel Census Area, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the Nome Census Area.

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

The state’s testing positivity rate reported Sunday was 1.74% over a seven-day rolling average.

- Tess Williams