Alaska’s COVID-19 case count continued to rise Thursday when the state reported 75 new cases of the disease, 65 Alaska residents and 10 nonresidents, in its data panel.
Overall, there were 1,235 active cases of the virus involving residents and non-residents across the state on Thursday, according to data from the state health department. A total of 780 people have recovered from the disease in Alaska, according to the data.
While Alaska’s daily case count remained in single digits for part of April and much of May, new cases began to appear throughout June and July, hitting a daily record on Sunday, when 116 cases were reported new.
Many of the new cases announced Thursday were linked to residents and visitors in Anchorage and the North Star district of Fairbanks.
In Anchorage, where contact tracking resources are at their maximum capacity and cases have been increasing steadily, there were 23 new cases of the disease among residents and a new case involving someone from Eagle River. There was also a further case related to a non-resident within Anchorage reported Thursday.
At Fairbanks North Star Borough, where cases are also on the rise, there were 23 new cases, including 17 cases related to Fairbanks residents and six among North Pole residents. In addition, five out-of-state individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in the municipality, according to updated state data on Thursday.
Emergency room doctors in Fairbanks and Anchorage reported seeing more patients with virus symptoms or positive results this week.
There were no new hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 reported on Thursday. Since the start of the pandemic, ninety-six people with the virus have required hospitalization.
The total number of Alaska residents whose deaths were associated with the disease stood at 17 on Thursday.
The rest of the cases recently reported in state data on Thursday are scattered across the state. In the Kenai Peninsula district, the new cases involve three Kenai residents, four Soldotna residents, and a Nikiski, Sterling, and Seward resident. One resident and one non-resident in smaller, unspecified communities within the southern part of the district also tested positive.
Other new cases involve two people from the Valdez-Cordova census area and two people from the Yukon-Koyukuk census area. The state does not report the names of communities with cases of the disease where fewer than 1,000 people live as a means of protecting privacy.
There were also cases involving a resident of Kotzebue, Wasilla and Haines, as well as a non-resident case in Kodiak, Sitka and Wrangell.
Since March, 1,693 Alaska residents and 339 non-residents have tested positive for COVID-19.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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