COVID-19 follow in Alaska: 66 new cases reported Sunday and 1 new death

Alaska reported 66 new cases of COVID-19 to residents on Sunday and one new death. No new cases were reported in non-residents.

Since Thursday, officials have reported the deaths of three Alaskans with COVID-19: One was a resident of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta whose death was reported on Thursday by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp., and the other was a North Pole in his 80s. -er years whose death was announced by the state Friday.

To date, 32 Alaskans have died with the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

A total of 4,741 Alaska residents and 817 non-residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since March.

There were 39 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and nine others waiting for test results on Sunday, state data showed. Alaska has 153 beds for intensive care units, which are used for the state’s sickest patients, and state data showed 82 were in statewide use by the end of the weekend.

While hospitalizations for COVID-19 have not overwhelmed the state’s health care capacity, they are still going up as dead from the disease, the state’s health department said this week.

The state also sees a “rapid increase” in new cases of COVID-19 among Alaska residents, the department said in a summary report on cases that occurred between Aug. 9 and 15.

New cases reported by the state on Saturday included 26 cases in Anchorage, two in Eagle River and one each in Girdwood and Chugiak.

The state reported another 40 cases among residents elsewhere in Alaska: 8 in Wasilla, four in Palmer, two in Kenai, one in Soldotna, 11 in Fairbanks, six in Juneau and one in Bethel. Among smaller communities in the state, there was one resident case in the Bethel Census Area, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the Nome Census Area.

From the newly reported cases, it was not clear how many diseases show symptoms of the virus when tested positive.

The state positive testing rate reported Sunday was 1.74% over a seven-day moving average.