Updated 8:10 a.m., Feb. 1
Infections of the novel coronavirus in Alaska have reached 54,351, with a total of 137 new infections documented on Sunday, Jan. 31, by state health officials.
The statewide death toll from the virus stands at 260 residents and two nonresidents.
The latest infection count update from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services included four residents of the Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services notes that Alaska now has more residents who have been vaccinated with their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine than residents who have tested positive for the virus.
To date, 52,470 residents and 1,746 nonresidents have been infected with COVID-19.
There has been a total of 1,205 hospitalizations. According to the DHSS dashboard 38 people currently hospitalized are confirmed to be COVID positive and one additional patient whose conditions is under investigation. Ten of these patients were on ventilators. No new hospitalizations or deaths were reported on Saturday, Jan. 30. These numbers are updated, with corrections, daily at covid19.alaska.gov.
New resident cases of the virus on the DHSS data dashboard as of Jan. 31, included:
- Anchorage, 41
- Bethel Census Area, 16
- Fairbanks, 12
- Kulsilvak Census Area, 9
- Bethel, 8
- Wasilla, 6
- Unalaska, Valdez-Cordova Census Area/Copper River, 4
- Douglas, 3
- Eagle River Kodiak, North Pole, Northwest Arctic Borough, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, 2
- Chugiak, Homer, Ketchikan, Kodiak Island Borough, Kotzebue, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Nikiski, Nome, Palmer, Seward, Sitka, Soldotna and Wrangell, 1.
Seven new nonresident cases were added to the DHSS data dashboard through data verification, including a seafood industry employee in the Aleutians East Borough one in Anchorage, two in Unalaska and three at unidentified locations,
Trident Seafoods officials said that as of Jan. 28 nearly all 706 workers at their processing facility at Akutan have been tested for the COVID-19 virus. A total of 266 tested positive, relying mainly on antigen rapid test methods for these initial results.
Additional medical professionals and testing supplies have arrived in Akutan, allowing Trident
To increase the speed and frequency of testing. Trident has also chartered flights for non-emergency evacuations to move about 100 employees to quarantine in Anchorage, where additional medical support is available as needed.
To date 613 employees remain on site at Akutan. Of those 195 who tested positive are isolating in company housing, separated from those who tested negative.
Trident also announced that its catcher/processor island Enterprise arrived in Dutch Harbor on Jan. 28 with two workers showing symptoms of COVID-19. Rapid testing through the night of all 125 people on board showed a total of five confirmed cases and two non-positive individuals reporting minor symptoms.
Trident’s Akutan facility and Island Enterprise vessel are not operating at this time.
A total of 1,5,500,325 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted in Alaska to date, including 31,118 tests in the previous seven days.
To date 90,777 shots of the first dose and 24,495 shots of the second dose of COVID vaccine have been given in Alaska for a total of 115,273, according to DHSS.
DHSS notes that even after being vaccinated people should practice COVID-19 protective measures, including masking, social distancing and hand washing.
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.
