Updated 5:40 p.m. Dec. 23
Infections of the novel coronavirus in Alaska have reached 44,828, including 359 new cases as of Wednesday Dec. 23, including one each in Cordova and the Valdez-Cordova Census Area.
Three new deaths were also reported, bringing the statewide death toll from COVID-19 to 196 residents and one nonresident.
Officials with the state Department of Health and Social Services say the current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000 is high at 58.01 cases per 100,000 people. All regions in Alaska except one are on high alert status with widespread community transmission occurring.
To date 43,361 Alaskans and 1,467 nonresidents have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
There are currently 111 people hospitalized with COVID-related conditions, including 106 people already diagnosed with COVID-19, and five others whose condition is under investigation. Fifteen of these patients are on ventilators.
According to state health officials the number of cases being reported electronically by phone and fax to the Section of Epidemiology is increasing. Because of the number of reports being received, there have been delays in getting reports entered and counted, they said.
The most recent people to succumb to the COVID-19 virus were an Anchorage woman in her 70s and two Anchorage men, one in his 60s and one in his 80s. A day earlier, DHSS officials reported the deaths of two Anchorage women, one in her 70s and one in her 80s, and two Anchorage men, one in his 70s and one in his 60s. DHSS also said that through reviews of death certificates over the past several months they added a Matanuska-Susitna man in his 80s, two Anchorage women in their 80s and 60s, two Anchorage men in their 70s and a Big Lake resident in his 40s.
New resident cases of the virus on the DHSS data dashboard as of Dec. 20 included:
- Anchorage, 118,
- Palmer, 40,
- Eagle River, Fairbanks, 33,
- Wasilla, 25,
- Kodiak, 20,
- Bethel 14,
- North Pole, 9,
- Toke, 8,
- Soldotna, Utqiagvik, 7,
- Bethel Census Area, Sitka, 4,
- Kenai Peninsula Borough North, Unalaska, 3,
- Delta Junction, Dillingham Census Area, Girdwood, Homer, Kenai, Northwest Arctic Borough, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, 2,
- Aleutians West Census Area, Big Lake, Chugiak, Cordova, Craig, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kusilvak Census Area, North Slope Borough, Seward, Sterling, Valdez and Valdez-Cordova Census Area, 1.
Four new nonresident cases identified include two in the mining industry in Juneau and one each at Unalaska and an undisclosed location.
Five resident cases and one nonresident case were added to the DHSS data dashboard through data verification.
A total of 1,222,027 tests have been conducted, with 26,037 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 4.91 percent. Statewide updates are provided daily by state health officials Alaska’s COVID-19 dashboard at covid19.alaska.gov.
The DHSS daily report reflects data from midnight to 11:59 p.m., which is posted at noon daily on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub.
Updates on the impact of COVID-19 are posted daily at coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com.
For Cordova updates, visit the city’s COVID-19 dashboard here.
