Alaska reports more than 500 new COVID-19 cases over last 2 days

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The state of Alaska on Friday 528 additional COVID-19 infections for the last two days as case counts continue to decline.

The state reported 336 total cases on Wednesday and 192 on Thursday. State case data shows an 8% decrease in COVID-19 cases over the previous week compared to the week of March 18-24. The state also reported 11 nonresident cases over the last two days — nine on Wednesday and two on Thursday.

There have been 1,195 COVID-19-related deaths of Alaska residents and 33 COVID-19-related deaths of nonresidents since the pandemic began here. The state announced early in February that it would only report new COVID-19-related deaths on Wednesdays.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alaska remains the state with the highest rate of new cases per capita over the last week. Alaska has had the highest case rate among all U.S. states for the last week. Alaska does trail the U.S. territory of American Samoa and the island nation in free association with the U.S. of Palau. The CDC case rate for Alaska of 184.5 is well above the Vermont — whose case rate of 148.2 is second-highest among U.S. states.

The state’s hospital dashboard showed 35 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across Alaska, and one patient that requires a ventilator. There are 26 available ICU beds statewide and just six in Anchorage.

Data of vaccination against COVID-19 remains mostly stagnant — with just a .1% increase shown since the state last reported data on Wednesday — in both Alaska residents, DoD and military personnel for both those who have received their first dose and those who have completed their primary series.

The stealth omicron BA.2 variant has dramatically increased in Alaska, jumping from 8.33% of variant cases reported by the state on Jan. 30 to 44.57% of variants reported on Feb. 27.

Beginning April 6, the state health department will move to only reporting additional COVID-19 cases and data once a week, on Wednesdays. According to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink, the health department will also take down its map for community “alerts” and instead add a “community 7-day case rate” map in order to complement a tool already in use by the CDC. More information about this change will be released next week, she said in a social media post.

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