The department is no longer updating its coronavirus dashboard this weekend or on vacation. Tuesday’s update includes issues that would be reported over the weekend and on the President’s Day holiday Monday.
The five deaths were among Palmer residents, two Wasilla residents, one Utqiagvik resident and one Bethel resident.
The number of cases in Alaska has been steadily declining over the past two months, following a peak in November and early December that the hospital’s capacity was strained before kicking off. Hospitalizations in Alaska have declined along with cases and are now less than a quarter of the places they were during the peak in November and December.
By Tuesday, there were 28 people with COVID-19 in hospitals across the state, including two who were on ventilators. It is believed that another 15 patients have the virus.
Alaska’s public health disaster declaration expired on Sunday, potentially confusing many parts of the state’s response to the pandemic – from large vaccine clinics to telehealth options for those out of care.
The COVID-19 vaccine reached Alaska in mid-December. According to Tuesday, 128,304 people – more than 17% of Alaska’s total population – received at least their first vaccine shot, according to the state vaccine monitoring panel. This is well above the national average of 11.5%.
Among Alaskans 16 and older, 22.7% had received at least one dose of vaccine by Tuesday. The Pfizer vaccine is approved for use in people 16 years and older, and Moderna’s has been cleared for use in people 18 and older.
Healthcare workers and nursing home staff and residents were the first people to receive the vaccine. Alaskans older than 65 were eligible in early January, and the state last week further extended admission requirements to educators, people 50 and older with high-risk medical conditions, essential workers 50 and older and people living in congregations living or working institutions such as shelters and prisons.
Those eligible to receive the vaccine can visit covidvax.alaska.gov or anchoragecovidvaccine.org, or call 907-646-3322 – the number is on weekdays 09: 00-18: 30 and on weekends 09: 00- 16:30: to sign up and to be eligible.
Despite the small numbers during January, Alaska is still in the highest alert category based on the current per capita infection rate, and public health officials are urging Alaskans to continue to maintain personal virus mitigation efforts such as hand washing, masking. and social distance. An extremely contagious variant of the virus reached Alaska last month.
Of the 427 cases announced since Friday among Alaska residents, 137 were in Anchorage, 10 in Eagle River, six in Chugiak and one in Girdwood; 100 in Wasilla; 45 in Palmer; 31 in Unalaska; 22 in Fairbanks; 16 in the North Pole; nine in Kodiak; four in Dillingham; four in Juneau; four in Ketchikan; three in Utqiagvik; two in Skagway; two in Big Lake; two in Seward; one in Kenai; one in Soldotna; one in Willow; one in Kotzebue; one in Sitka; one in Salcha; and one in Hooper Bay.
Among communities with a population below 1,000 that were not named for privacy protection, there were seven resident cases in the Bethel census area; five in the Kusil subject census area; three in the Copper River census area; two in the Northwest North Pole area; one in the southern district of Kenai Peninsula; one in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough; one in the Yukon Koyukuk census area; one in the Nome census area; and one in the combined Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula boroughs.
The state has also reported 49 cases among non-residents since Friday: 37 in Unalaska, five in the northern slope city, two in the Eastern Aleut, one in Anchorage, one in Kodiak, one in Juneau and three in unidentified regions 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.