Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 121 cases reported statewide Friday, no new deaths

Alaska on Friday reported 121 new cases of COVID-19 around the state, nearly all of them in residents and a majority in people from Anchorage.

The city is experiencing numerous outbreaks including at McLaughlin Youth Center, where 16 new cases were identified this week, and one associated with Brother Francis Shelter that grew to 60 clients and a staff member. The Anchorage Pioneer Home has also identified a cluster of 18 cases that included one recent death.

The state on Friday also reported four recent COVID-19 cases at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home involving three staff members and one resident of the facility who is in isolation there.

The cases among staff were discovered through regular testing on Aug. 15 and 20, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. No residents were showing symptoms Friday, the department said, and testing of all 87 residents and 101 staff and contracted employees would continue “at least weekly until two weeks past the last positive.”

As of Friday morning, there were 35 people hospitalized in Alaska with COVID-19 and two other hospital patients awaiting test results, as reflected on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. Alaska has 153 intensive care unit beds, which would be used for the state’s sickest patients, and state data showed that 89 were in use.

There were no new deaths reported by the state health department Friday. A total of 37 Alaskans have died with the virus since the pandemic began here in March.

Active COVID-19 infections among Alaska residents increased from 3,019 Thursday to 3,062 Friday. The number of active nonresident cases is now 641.

In total, 5,092 Alaska residents and 831 nonresidents have tested positive for COVID-19 since March.

[Related: Anchorage’s bars and restaurants can open to indoor dining Monday at half capacity, with other restrictions]

Seventy-eight of the new cases reported Friday involved Anchorage residents, including two in Eagle River.

The state Friday reported another 42 cases among residents from elsewhere in Alaska: one in Cordova; 16 in Fairbanks and one in North Pole; three in Wasilla; two in Utqiagvik; three in Bethel; three in Juneau; one in Ketchikan; one in Sitka; one in Nome; and one labelled as unknown. Among communities smaller than 1,000, which are not identified to protect resident privacy, there were two in the Nome area; two in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area; two in Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area; and one in Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon.

The state also reported three nonresident cases, one in Anchorage and two in Fairbanks.

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

The state’s testing positivity rate reported Friday was 2.22% over a seven-day rolling average. There have been 339,538 tests performed so far in Alaska, which can include multiple tests on one person.

-- Zaz Hollander and Morgan Krakow