Wednesday’s number of cases follows over a month of lower daily numbers. Alaska saw a peak in November and early December that limited the capacity of the hospital. For the first time since September, the daily number of cases doubled last week.
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 along 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 Wednesday, there were 40 people with COVID-19 in hospitals across the state. Two more patients were believed to 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 COVID-19 vaccine reached Alaska in mid-December. By Wednesday, 98,265 – about 13% of Alaska’s population – had received at least their first vaccine shot, according to the state vaccine monitoring panel. This is well above the national average of 8%.
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 assistance in making an appointment in February.
Of the 178 cases announced Wednesday in Alaska residents, 45 were in Anchorage plus six in Eagle River; one in Anchor Point; one in Homer; one in Nikiski; two in Seward; one in Soldotna; three in Kodiak; one in Valdez; 14 in Fairbanks; three in the North Pole ;; four in Tok; one in Big Lake; one in Houston; 24 in Palmer; 32 in Wasilla; one in Utqiagvik; one in Douglas; five in Juneau; three in Ketchikan; one in Petersburg; three in Sitka; two in Unalaska and one in Bethel;
Among communities with a population below 1,000 that were not named to protect privacy, there were three cases in the Copper River region; three in the southeastern Fairbanks census area; one in the Yukon-Koyukuk census area; two in the Nome census area; one in the Eastern District of Aleutians; five in the Bethel census area; five in the Dillingham census area and one in the Kusilvak census area.
There were also 48 infections among non-residents identified, including 23 in Anchorage; one in Kodiak; one in the Noordhellingstad; 15 in the eastern district of Aleut; five in the census area of the Aleutians West and three in unknown parts 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.
Of the total COVID-19 tests completed across the country in the past week, 2.37% returned positive.