Alaska reports 1,473 new COVID-19 cases as hospitalizations rise

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Alaska has reached another record-breaking number of hospitalizations as COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the state.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reported 1,473 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, which include case counts from last Friday and through the weekend, as well as one resident death and 210 hospitalizations. An additional 10 people are hospitalized and suspected of having the virus.

The newly reported resident death brings the number of people who have died with the virus in Alaska to 459, including 445 residents and 14 nonresidents. The person who died was an Anchorage man who was in his 80s or older, according to the state, and his death was reported as recent.

Monday’s reported hospitalizations is slightly higher than what was reported last Friday, which was 208 people hospitalized as of Sept. 9. Last week, the state broke record hospitalization counts every day that the health department released new data. At the beginning of July, there were just 19 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide.

Alaska’s statewide alert level remains high as COVID-19 cases continue to rise across communities in the state. A majority of the new COVID-19 cases reported Monday were identified among residents of the following communities:

Anchorage: 499
Fairbanks: 197
Wasilla: 124
Palmer: 77
Eagle River: 75
North Slope Borough: 69
North Pole: 52
Juneau: 36
Bethel Census Area: 26
Chudiak: 23
Kenai: 20
Soldotna: 20
Nome Census Area: 16
Ketchikan: 15
Kodiak: 14
Utqiagvik: 13
Seward: 12
Big Lake: 9
Cooper River Census Area: 9
Girdwood: 9
Kenai Peninsula Borough North: 9
Bethel: 8
Northwest Arctic Borough: 7
Sutton-Alpine: 7
Craig: 6
Delta Junction: 6
Homer: 6
Kotzebue: 6
Dillingham Census Area: 5
Fairbanks North Star Borough: 5
Dillingham: 4
Healy: 4
Kusilvak Census Area: 4
Willow: 4
Aleutians East Borough: 3
Salcha: 3
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area: 3
Tok: 3
Valdez: 3
Haines: 2
Kenai Peninsula Borough South: 2
Matanuska-Susitna Borough: 2
Nikiski: 2
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area: 2
Sterling: 2
Cordova: 1
Douglas: 1
Ester: 1
Kodiak Island Borough: 1
Sitka: 1
Skagway: 1
Wrangell: 1
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area: 1

The state also identified 42 additional nonresident COVID-19 cases throughout the state on Monday, including 15 in Anchorage, 10 in Wasilla, six in Fairbanks, three in Juneau, two in Nome, two in Prudhoe Bay, one in Eagle River, one in Kodiak, one in Seward and one whose location is still under investigation.

The health department’s vaccine monitoring dashboard shows that just over 56% of all eligible Alaskans age 12 and older are now fully vaccinated, and that 61.8% have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The Juneau region remains the most highly vaccinated major region of the state, while the Kenai Peninsula and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough remain the two least vaccinated major regions, respectively.