Alaska is reporting the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in one day at 231 newly diagnosed cases. One hundred eighty-six of them are Alaskans and 45 are nonresidents visiting or working in the state.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) today announced the latest case data on its Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub. Today’s case data was collected yesterday, July 25.
Thirty-four of the nonresident cases are workers in the seafood industry in Seward. One is a visitor in Fairbanks and 10 cases are of unknown origin. Two of the unknown origins of the nonresident cases are in Fairbanks. One of the unknown nonresident cases is in Ketchikan and the location of the remaining seven nonresident cases is also unknown.
Three additional nonresident cases were added from a previous date. Today’s new cases and corrections bring the total number of Alaska resident cases to 2,524 and the total number of nonresident cases to 578.
The 186 Alaskans who have been diagnosed with the virus are residents in 18 communities. Anchorage saw the highest spike in cases at 154 — despite Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s mask mandate for indoor public settings or communal spaces outside of the home, now on its 28th day. The 17 other communities around the state have new case numbers in the single digits. Alaska’s second largest city of Fairbanks has nine. Eagle River has 3. Juneau, North Pole, Palmer, Wrangell, Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon each have two new cases. One new case was counted in each of the communities of Chugiak, Homer, Houston, Ketchikan, Price of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Sitka, Wasilla, Unalaska, the Valdez-Cordova Census Area and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.
Seventy-two of the 186 Alaska residents are male and 114 are female. Nine of them are children under the age of 10; 12 are aged 10-19; 33 are aged 20-29; 36 are aged 30-39; 30 are aged 40-49; 35 are aged 50-59; 20 are aged 60-69; 10 are aged 70-79 and one is aged 80 or older.
DHSS officials say there is a variety of factors contributing to the record high count of Alaskans who have contracted the virus. Social gatherings causing widespread community transmission, outbreaks in several large seafood processing plants and a backlog of test results that were recently entered into the database are a few of those factors.
State officials say more than half of the test results are initially submitted by fax. Some are reported by telephone, which requires manual verification before being entered into the state’s data hub. COVID-19 test results arrive in batches and are not always submitted daily, which can add to the backlog.
“Today’s high case count is partly due to our data team working to enter this backlogged data, but it also clearly shows we are experiencing widespread community transmission,” said Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum. “We have been in the management phase of this pandemic since May. In order for us to continue manage the virus, we need to stop this current surge. Daily cases over 100 will soon diminish our hospital bed capacity. Now is the time for Alaskans to keep their social circles small, maintain 6 feet of distance from others, and wear a face covering when 6 feet can’t be maintained. Let’s work together to slow the spread, to protect our vulnerable, and to keep our businesses and economy running. It’s critical that Alaskans take this seriously. More announcements on mitigation strategy will be coming over the next couple days.”
A total of 115 patients have been hospitalized in Alaska with COVID-19 and 20 Alaskans have reportedly died because of the disease. There were no new hospitalizations or deaths reported yesterday.
Currently, 35 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 are in the hospital and an additional eight patients are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 43 current COVID-related hospitalizations.
To date, 817 patients have recovered from COVID-19.
Health officials have conducted a total number of 207,264 COVID-19 tests statewide. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous three days is 1.91%, which is down from the 3-day average of 2.12% reported yesterday.
