Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 72 new cases reported Monday, no new deaths

Alaska reported 72 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, all but one in residents, including 14 in the Bethel area but outside the city.

There were no new deaths reported Monday.

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

Active COVID-19 infections among Alaska residents declined slightly from 3,150 on Sunday to 3,104 in Monday’s report, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard. Friday was the first time there has been a drop in active resident cases in several weeks. The number of active nonresident cases remained unchanged at 631 Monday.

In total, 4,810 Alaska residents and 818 nonresidents have tested positive for COVID-19 since March.

There were 40 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and three other hospital patients awaiting test results by Monday, state data showed. Alaska has 153 intensive care unit beds, which are used for the state’s sickest patients, and state data showed that 83 were in use statewide at the start of this week.

Hospitalizations and deaths linked to the pandemic are rising though they have not overwhelmed the state’s health-care capacity, officials say.

More than half, or 42, of the new resident cases reported Monday were in Anchorage.

The state reported another 29 cases among residents from elsewhere in Alaska: two in Kenai; one in Valdez; two in Fairbanks; one in Sutton-Alpine, five in Wasilla, one in Willow; one in Bethel; and one in a community under investigation.

Among smaller communities in the state, there was one new case in the Fairbanks North Star Borough and 14 in the Bethel Census Area, an unusually high daily report for that category.

Officials with the state and tribal health organization Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. did not respond to requests asking if the cases were all in one place or separate communities, citing confidentiality protections.

But YKHC reported a total of 17 new cases in the region over the weekend.

On Saturday, the organization reported six cases: a Bethel resident, a nonresident who tested positive in Bethel, and four residents of an area village considered close contacts of a previously known case. On Sunday, the organization reported another 11 cases: eight in a village considered close contacts of a previously known case; one area village resident; a Bethel resident; and another area village resident. The villages were not identified.

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

The state’s testing positivity rate reported Monday was 1.64% over a seven-day rolling average. There have been 330,503 tests performed in Alaska, which can include multiple tests on one person.

-- Zaz Hollander

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