Alaska again leads all states in COVID-19 case rate; 559 new cases reported in past 2 days

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The state of Alaska again has the highest COVID-19 case rate among all states, and reported more than 500 new cases over the past two days.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reported 559 new cases — 238 on Wednesday and 321 on Tuesday. Of those, 14 were nonresident cases. Cases for the previous seven days are roughly the same when compared to the week of March 11-17, with reported 1,448 this week and 1,444 last week.

The state remains in the “high” alert status for case rates, according to the health department, although eight individual boroughs and census areas have case rates below the threshold for high at either a substantial or moderate level.

Alaska again ranks first out of all U.S. states for its rate of new cases per capita. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alaska has a rate of 193 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the last week — 42 cases higher per 100,000 residents over the last week than the second highest ranked state of Vermont. This is the first time since mid-February Alaska has ranked first among states in case rate. Alaska’s case rate does rank below the U.S. territories of American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam, as well as the island in free association with the U.S. of Palau.

There have been 1,189 deaths of Alaska residents attributed to COVID-19 in Alaska, as well as 33 COVID-19 deaths among nonresidents. The state only reports new deaths on Wednesdays.

There are currently 35 people in Alaska hospitalized with COVID-19, which is down from 37 in Wednesday’s report. Among all people hospitalized in Alaska, 2.8% of people are hospitalized with COVID-19, and there are two people hospitalized that currently require ventilators. Across the state, there are 28 adult intensive care unit beds available.

Vaccine rates continue to increase only marginally, with 71.4% of residents, military members and veterans having received at least one vaccination dose and 64.4% completing their primary immunization series. Booster shots have been administered to 27.3% of residents.

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