Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 689 new cases and no deaths reported Wednesday

Alaska reported 689 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and no new deaths, according to the state Department of Health and Social Services.

In total, 121 Alaskans with COVID-19 have died since the virus was first detected here in March. The state’s death rate per capita remains one of the lowest in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Wednesday, there were 149 people hospitalized with COVID-19, along with another 14 people with suspected infections. Statewide on Wednesday, 24 intensive care unit beds were available out of 120, and 17.1% of total hospitalizations statewide were COVID-related. The ICU capacity was in the red zone, or more than 75% full.

Health officials say new cases linked to Thanksgiving gatherings may start appearing in the data this week. They have repeatedly stressed that hospitals in Alaska will become overwhelmed if cases continue to rise. In response to the continually high case counts and rising hospitalizations, Anchorage on Tuesday returned to a modified “hunker-down” state that will last until the end of the year.

All but one region of the state remains at high alert.

[Hope and some uncertainty as Alaska prepares for first doses of COVID-19 vaccine to arrive]

The CDC announced it was revising its quarantine guidance to allow people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 to shorten their quarantine period from two weeks to as few as seven days with a negative COVID-19 test.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services said in a statement that it has reviewed the updated CDC guidance and supports the new options for shortening a post-exposure quarantine.

“These changes were made based on data on when people are most likely to test positive and become contagious after close contact with an individual who has tested positive,” said Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer.

“These shortened quarantine options will continue to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 while easing the burden on those who must quarantine,” she added.

Of the 679 new cases reported by the state Wednesday among Alaska residents, there were 216 in Anchorage, plus 12 in Eagle River and 11 in Chugiak; 192 in Wasilla, 39 in Palmer, three in Big Lake, three in Houston and two in Willow; 33 in Soldotna, 24 in Kenai, nine in Homer, three in Seward, three in Sterling, two in Nikiski and two in Anchor Point; 29 in Utqiagvik; 24 in Kodiak; 12 in Fairbanks and two in North Pole; eight in Bethel; seven in Sitka; five in Delta Junction; five in Nome; four in Juneau and one in Douglas; three in Unalaska; one in Healy; one in Ketchikan; one in Craig; one in Wrangell; and one in Dillingham.

Among communities smaller than 1,000 people not named to protect privacy, there were four resident cases in the Bethel Census Area; three in the northern Kenai Peninsula Borough; two in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area; two in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area; two in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area; two in the Aleutians East Borough; one in the southern Kenai Peninsula Borough; one in the Fairbanks North Star Borough; one in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough; one in the North Slope Borough; and one in the Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula boroughs.

Ten cases were reported among nonresidents: two in Anchorage, two in Wasilla, one in Kenai, one in Delta Junction, one in a smaller community in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area and three in unidentified regions of the state.

State health officials have said cases reported daily underestimate true totals because the surging number of people diagnosed in recent weeks has caused a data backlog. A commercial testing lab also failed to report hundreds of cases, the majority of them from Mat-Su.

More than 1 million tests have been performed in Alaska since March. While people might get tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department represents only one person.

Among the new cases, the state does not report how many people show symptoms when they test positive. The CDC estimates that about a third of people who have the virus are asymptomatic.

On Wednesday, the state had an average positivity rate of 7.27% over the last seven days. Health officials warn that a positivity rate over 5% can mean there is not enough broad testing occurring in a community.

— Zaz Hollander and Annie Berman