The department no longer updates its coronavirus panel over the weekend or holidays. Tuesday’s update includes cases that would have been reported over the weekend and on President’s Day holiday on Monday.
The five deaths involved a resident of Palmer, two residents of Wasilla, a resident of Utqiagvik and a resident of Bethel, state data showed.
Alaska’s case count has steadily declined over the past two months, after a peak in November and early December that affected the hospital’s capacity before stabilizing. Alaskan hospitalizations have declined along with the cases and are now less than a quarter of where they were during the peak in November and December.
As of Tuesday, there were 28 people with COVID-19 in hospitals across the state, including two who were on ventilators. Another 15 patients were considered to have the virus.
Alaska’s public health disaster declaration expired on Sunday, potentially launching many parts of the state’s response to the pandemic – from major vaccine clinics to telehealth options for those receiving outpatient care – into confusion.
The COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Alaska in mid-December. As of Tuesday, 128,304 people – more than 17% of Alaska’s total population – had received at least their first vaccine injection, according to the state’s vaccine monitoring panel. This is well above the national average of 11.5%.
Among Alaskans aged 16 and over, 22.7% received at least one dose of the vaccine by Tuesday. The Pfizer vaccine has been authorized for use in people aged 16 and over, and Moderna has been approved for use in people aged 18 and over.
Health professionals and employees of nursing homes and residents were the first people prioritized to receive the vaccine. Alaskans over 65 became eligible in early January, and the state further expanded its eligibility criteria last week to include educators, people aged 50 and over with a high-risk medical condition, essential health workers. people aged 50 or over and people living or working together in settings such as shelters and prisons.
Those eligible to receive the vaccine can visit covidvax.alaska.gov or anchoragecovidvaccine.org, or call 907-646-3322 – the number works from 9am to 6:30 pm during the week and 9am to 4:30 pm on weekends – to apply and to confirm eligibility.
Despite the lower case numbers in January, Alaska is still in the highest alert category based on the current rate of infection per capita, and public health officials continue to encourage Alaskans to follow up on personal mitigation efforts. viruses, like washing your hands and wearing masks and social detachment. A highly contagious variant of the virus arrived in Alaska last month.
Of the 427 cases announced since Friday among Alaskan residents, there were 137 in Anchorage, 10 in Eagle River, six in Chugiak and one in Girdwood; 100 in Wasilla; 45 in Palmer; 31 in Unalaska; 22 in Fairbanks; 16 at the North Pole; nine in Kodiak; four at Dillingham; four at Juneau; four in Ketchikan; three in Utqiagvik; two in Skagway; two on Big Lake; two at Seward; one in Kenai; one in Soldotna; one in Willow; one in Kotzebue; one in Sitka; one in Salcha; and one in Hooper Bay.
Among communities with populations under 1,000 unidentified to protect privacy, there were seven cases of residents in the Bethel Census Area; five in the Kusilvak Census Area; three in the Copper River Census Area; two in the Northwest Arctic Borough; one in the south of the Kenai Borough Peninsula; one at the Ketchikan Gateway Borough; one in the Yukon Koyukuk census area; one in the Name Census Area; and one in the combined neighborhoods of Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula.
The state has also recorded 49 cases among non-residents since Friday: 37 in Unalaska, five in North Slope Borough, two in Aleutians East Borough, one in Anchorage, one in Kodiak, one in Juneau and three in unidentified regions of the state.
Although people can be tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department represents only one person.
State data does not specify whether people who test positive for COVID-19 have symptoms. More than half of the country’s infections are transmitted by asymptomatic people, according to CDC estimates.