State health officials report the number of Alaskans vaccinated against the novel coronavirus keeps rising, with a total of 260,616 doses administered through Tuesday, March 2, but dozens are still getting infected and people are still dying.
One hundred and 59 more people tested positive, among them 124 Alaskans and 35 nonresidents, including 34 seafood industry workers at Unalaska and another in the Aleutians East Borough.
The resident case count includes:
- Anchorage, 39,
- Wasilla, 25,
- Fairbanks, Palmer 10,
- Kusilvak Census Area, 8,
- Bethel Census Area, 7
- Petersburg, 6,
- Sitka, 3,
- Chugiak, North Pole, 2
- Cordova, Dillingham, Homer, Juneau, Kenai, Ketchikan, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Soldotna, Sutton-Alpine, Tok, Utqiagvik and Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon, 1.
Thirty-five resident cases were subtracted from and 32 nonresident cases were added to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services data dashboard.
A total of 23 people are currently hospitalized with COVID -19, plus three other patients under investigation for the virus. Six of the patients are on ventilators.
State health officials also reported the death from the virus of an Anchorage woman 80 years or older, and a Wasilla resident in his 60s, who passed away in another state.
Most regions of the state are still at the high alert status with widespread community transmission, they said.
Overall 157,023 people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 104,349 others have been fully vaccinated.
A total of 1,704,660 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, with 32,389 of those tests within the seven days previous to March 2. The average percentage of daily positive tests for that period was 2.25 percent.
While COVID-19 is now being distributed statewide, DHSS officials are reminding everyone to keep observing protective protocols, including masking, social distancing and hand washing.
