Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 116 new cases and no new deaths reported Saturday

The state on Saturday reported 116 new cases of COVID-19, according to the Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard.

There were no new deaths reported Saturday. On Friday, Alaska recorded six previously unreported deaths among residents, though only one was recent, according to the state health department. The other five deaths were determined to be associated with COVID-19 by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and occurred in July and August.

A total of 52 Alaskans with COVID-19 have died since the pandemic began here in March. Alaska’s death rate remains among the lowest in the country.

Active cases of COVID-19 among Alaska residents fell from 4,424 on Friday to 4,350 on Saturday. There were also 646 total active cases among nonresidents.

Of the new cases, it wasn’t clear how many patients were showing symptoms of the virus when they tested positive.

Statewide data on hospitalizations and hospital capacity had not been updated on the state’s data hub since Tuesday, when there were 39 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and four others awaiting test results. The state is changing how it reports those statistics, and is now going through a federal database instead of through the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association according to the health department.

Of the 116 new cases of COVID-19 involving residents, 62 were in Anchorage, plus three in Eagle River, one in Girdwood and one in Chugiak; two were in Seward; one was in Kenai; one was in Soldotna; two were in Palmer; one was in Wasilla; 20 were in Fairbanks; two were in North Pole; one was in Kodiak; one was in Healy; five were in Utqiagvik; one was in Juneau; two were in Bethel; and one case was in an unknown part of the state.

Among communities smaller than 1,000 not identified to protect confidentiality, there were two resident cases in the Denali Borough; one in the Fairbanks North Star Borough; two in the Nome Census Area; one in the Northwest Arctic Borough; and one in the combined Yakutat and Hoonah-Angoon region.

There were no new nonresident cases reported Saturday.

The state’s testing positivity rate as of Saturday was 2.43% over a seven-day rolling average.