Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 69 new cases reported Wednesday

Alaska on Wednesday reported 69 new cases of COVID-19 among residents and nonresidents.

The state did not report any new deaths among Alaskans with COVID-19, after announcing two deaths the day before.

So far, 39 Alaskans with the virus have died, including two recent deaths involving residents of the Anchorage Pioneer Home, one of multiple communal living settings in Anchorage dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19.

In addition to the 19 cases associated with the state assisted living facility, there are also 79 confirmed cases at the Brother Francis Shelter and 22 cases among residents and employees at the McLaughlin Youth Center, state and local health officials said this week.

The Anchorage School District on Wednesday closed the O’Malley Elementary School building after a staff member there tested positive, according to district spokesman Alan Brown. It is the first time an Anchorage school building has closed due to a COVID-19 case since school began Aug. 20.

All classes in the district are currently online-only. The infected staff member had not been in the school building since Aug. 27 and had been teleworking, Brown said. The building will be deep-cleaned and public health is conducting contact tracing, he said, adding that all staff will work from home until further notice. No student activities had been occurring at the building except for the distribution of school materials to families, which is “largely a drive-up operation” with minimal staff contact, according to Brown.

Statewide as of Wednesday, 41 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized while five other hospital patients were awaiting test results, according to state data. Ten ventilators were being used by people with confirmed and suspected cases of the illness. Of Alaska’s 153 intensive care unit beds, 76 were in use statewide, according to data published by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.

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Active cases of COVID-19 among Alaska residents rose from 3,208 on Tuesday to 3,240 on Wednesday. There were an additional 673 active cases among nonresidents.

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

Of the 68 new cases of COVID-19 involving residents, 30 were in Anchorage; one in Eagle River; two in Kenai; two in Soldotna; 19 in Fairbanks; three in North Pole; four in Palmer; one in Wasilla; two in Utqiagvik; one in Juneau; one in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area; one in the combined Yakutat and Hoonah-Angoon region; and one in the combined Bristol Bay and Lake & Peninsula boroughs.

There was one case confirmed in a nonresident in Ketchikan.

The state’s testing positivity rate as of Wednesday was 1.96% over a seven-day rolling average.

— Morgan Krakow and Emily Goodykoontz