Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 382 new cases reported Tuesday, no deaths

Alaska on Tuesday reported 382 new cases of COVID-19, six new hospitalizations and no deaths, according to the Department of Health and Social Services.

In total, 84 Alaskans with the virus have died since the start of the pandemic, and Alaska’s overall death rate per capita remains among the lowest in the country.

A total of 80 people were hospitalized with the virus in Alaska as of Tuesday, and another 17 hospital patients were suspected of having COVID-19, according to state data.

Nine patients with the virus are currently on ventilators. The rising number of patients hospitalized with the virus over the last few weeks has officials worried that increasing case numbers could overwhelm hospitals if the virus continues to spread rapidly.

[Why officials are concerned health care capacity could be the next pinch point in handling Alaska’s virus surge]

Tuesday’s case count follows over a month of triple-digit daily increases, and is part of an upward trend, with an estimated daily growth rate of 3.93%.

Of the 380 new resident cases reported by the state Tuesday, there were 176 in Anchorage, plus three in Chugiak, seven in Eagle River and one in Girdwood; 32 in Wasilla; 22 in Fairbanks; 19 in Juneau; 13 in North Pole; 11 in Bethel; 11 in Kotzebue; 10 in Palmer; eight in Soldotna; six in Utqiagvik; five in Kenai; three in Seward; three in Homer; one in Healy; one in Big Lake; one in Sutton-Alpine; one in Douglas; one in Sitka; one in Fritz Creek; one in Hooper Bay; and one in an unidentified region of the state.

Among communities smaller than 1,000 people that are not named to protect privacy, there were 14 resident cases in the Bethel Census Area; two in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area; two in the Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula boroughs; one in the northern Kenai Peninsula Borough; one in the Fairbanks North Star Borough; one in the Nome Census Area; one in the Northwest Arctic Borough; one in the Aleutians West Census Area; and one in the Dillingham Census Area.

There were also two new nonresident cases: one in Fairbanks and one in an unidentified region of the state.

[For months, the Mat-Su avoided the COVID-19 spikes hitting other regions of Alaska. Now it’s a hotspot.]

As of Tuesday, there was a total of 10,251 active cases of the virus among Alaska residents and nonresidents in the state. A total of 7,113 people had recovered.

Of the new cases, it is not reported how many patients were showing symptoms of the virus when they tested positive. While people might get tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department only represents one person.

All but two regions of the state were considered to be in high alert, meaning widespread community transmission is occurring. The regions with the highest rates of community transmission were the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta with a 14-day average of 129.77 cases per 100,000, the Municipality of Anchorage at 57.39, followed by the Mat-Su with 48.32 and the Kenai Peninsula Borough at 45.16.

The state’s testing positivity as of Tuesday was 6.58% over a seven-day rolling average, after reaching a high of over 8% late last week. A positivity rate over 5% can indicate high community transmission and not enough testing, health officials have said.

In a separate update, the department announced on Tuesday that a third resident from the state-run Fairbanks Pioneer Home has died with the virus. An outbreak there that began in September has grown this month to 66 staff and residents, with five currently active cases. It can sometimes take a few days for death data to be reflected in the state’s numbers, officials have said.

— Annie Berman