Alaska News

Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 84 cases and no deaths reported Thursday and Friday

We're making this important information available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider supporting independent journalism in Alaska, at just $3.69 a week for an online subscription.

Alaska on Friday reported 84 new coronavirus infections and no COVID-19-related deaths identified over two days, according to the state Department of Health and Social Services. The health department now updates its coronavirus dashboard on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Alaska’s average daily case counts have increased slightly over the last week, but the state’s current statewide alert level remains low. Just one region of the state — the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta — remained at a high alert level this week, largely due to a outbreak in Hooper Bay.

[Hooper Bay experiences Yukon-Kuskokwim region’s largest COVID-19 outbreak in months]

A report published this week by the health department showed that a growing proportion of Alaska’s coronavirus cases are linked back to variants of concern — particularly B.1.1.7, a highly contagious variant first identified in the United Kingdom last winter. By June, roughly a third of all sequenced cases were caused by this variant, the report said.

Health officials continue to encourage Alaskans to get vaccinated against the virus, noting that the vaccines have been shown to be highly effective at preventing illness from the virus, including the variants.

The pace of vaccination has slowed in recent weeks. By Friday, roughly 55% of the state’s population age 12 and older had received at least their first dose of the vaccine while 50% of residents 12 and older were considered fully vaccinated. Alaska ranked No. 29 in the country for most vaccinated residents per capita.

By Friday, there were 19 people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 hospitalized around the state, including five who are on ventilators.

ADVERTISEMENT

In total, 367 Alaskans and seven nonresidents with COVID-19 have died since the pandemic reached the state last spring. Alaska’s death rate per capita remains among the lowest in the country, though the state’s size, health care system and other factors complicate national comparisons.

Of the 74 cases recorded Thursday and Friday among Alaskans, there were 37 in Anchorage, 11 in Hooper Bay, four in Palmer, three in Eagle River, two in Nome, two in Wasilla, and one each in Bethel, Big Lake, Craig, Fairbanks, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kotzebue and Soldotna; plus seven in a smaller community or communities in the Nome Census Area.

Ten cases were identified among nonresidents, including three in Anchorage, one in the Denali Borough, one in Dillingham, one in the southern Kenai Peninsula Borough and one in an unidentified region of the state.

— Annie Berman

ADVERTISEMENT