Monday’s fall counts over a month of lower daily numbers. Alaska saw a peak in November and early December that raised concerns about hospital capacity. For the first time since September, the daily number of cases doubled last week.
As infections continue to plummet, lower-ranking Austin Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson announced last week that the city would relax COVID-19 restrictions. A new emergency order is now in force that will allow more people inside pubs and restaurants and limit the size of the event.
Despite the small numbers during January, Alaska is still in the highest alert category based on the current infection rate per capita.
The seafood industry has been hit again with several outbreaks among vessels and processing facilities in the Aleut Islands. Some of the facilities temporarily closed just as the winter fishing season began.
Hospitalizations have dropped simultaneously with the number of infections and are now less than a third of the places where they were during the peak in November and December. By Monday, there were 39 people with COVID-19 in hospitals across the state. It is believed that four more patients have the virus, and ten patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Health officials are urging Alaskans to continue to take the pandemic seriously, even as numbers have dropped. Scientists from the state’s public health laboratories confirmed last week that a highly contagious variant of the virus had reached Alaska last month.
The vaccine reached Alaska in mid-December. Teen Monday 95,881 people – about 13% of Alaska’s population – received at least their first vaccine shot, according to the state vaccine monitoring panel. This is well above the national average of 7.6%.
Healthcare workers and nursing home staff and residents were the first people to receive the vaccine. In early January, the state said Alaskans over the age of 65 are now eligible, although appointment slots are limited and quickly filled.
Thousands of new vaccine appointments are available on the state’s website this week, many of which are still available. Elderly and other eligible health care professionals can call 907-646-3322 for help making an appointment in February.
Of the 63 cases announced Monday in Alaska residents, 25 were in Anchorage plus three in Eagle River; one in Kenai; three in Kodiak; three in Fairbanks plus two in the North Pole; 10 in Palmer; three in Sutton-Alpine; nine in Wasilla;
Among communities with a population below 1,000 that were not named for privacy, there was one in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area; one in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area; one in the Northwest Arctic District; and one in the Bethel census area.
Thirty-eight infections were also identified in non-residents in the state, including 15 in the Aleutians East Borough, 11 in Unalaska and 12 in an unidentified region of the state.
Although people can be tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department represents only one person.
The state’s data does not determine whether people who are positive for COVID-19 have symptoms. According to CDC estimates, more than half of the country’s infections are transmitted by asymptomatic people.