Alaska on Friday reported one COVID-19 death, 870 cases and 150 hospitalizations following a recent trend of gradually declining virus case counts statewide.
Over the last week, Alaska saw about an 8% decline in cases compared to the week before, according to state data. But despite the generally downward trend, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Friday continued to show Alaska with the highest case rate in the nation. Over the past seven days, Alaska had 583.6 cases per 100,000 people, nearly four times the national rate.
Virus-related hospitalizations also continued to fall. By Friday, there were 150 people with COVID-19 hospitalized around the state, down from 159 reported Thursday. That number is still relatively high — it’s about the same number of people who were hospitalized during last winter’s peak in hospitalizations — but represents a significant drop from last week, when a record 236 hospitalizations were reported.
Of current patients, 25 required mechanical ventilation, and roughly 15% of all hospital patients were COVID-positive.
The percentage of COVID-19 tests returning positive results was 8.08% Friday, based on a seven-day rolling average. Epidemiologists say a rate above 5% can indicate widespread transmission and not enough testing. The current statewide positivity rate reflects a decrease from the pandemic highs recorded in recent weeks.
This week, vaccine providers around Alaska began offering child-sized doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to kids ages 5 to 11, following federal and state guidance. Parents seeking children’s vaccine options at Anchorage-area providers can look for those designations at anchoragecovidvaccine.org, which lists many, but not all, vaccine providers available.
[Relief, excitement and some anxiety as newly eligible Alaska children receive COVID-19 vaccine]
All Alaskans can also call the state’s coronavirus helpline at 907-646-3322 for assistance finding and making an appointment. That phone line is monitored from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends. Free language interpretation services are available.
Roughly 65% of Alaskans 12 and older have received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The state’s vaccine dashboard will change next week to reflect the recent change in eligibility to all Alaskans 5 and older.
Alaska on Friday reported four more COVID-19 deaths, just over 800 new cases of the virus and yet another day of high hospitalizations.
Transmission of the virus appears to have plateaued somewhat over the past six to eight weeks, but case counts, hospitalizations and deaths statewide have remained stubbornly elevated, even as cases around the country have begun to fall.
Alaska’s seven-day case rate remains the highest among U.S. states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By Friday, there were at least 220 people hospitalized with COVID-19. In facilities, hundreds of state-contracted health care workers from out of state have helped relieve some of the burden on Alaska’s hospitals. But continually high counts of COVID-19 patients still mean strained resources, long emergency room wait times and an exhausted workforce.
[Prominent COVID-19 vaccine skeptics to meet in Anchorage this week as Alaska’s case rates top the nation]
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday cleared low doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 for emergency use — though Alaska vaccine providers and pediatricians will still need to wait to begin administering shots until at least next week. That’s when recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are expected.
Roughly 65% of Alaskans 12 and older have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 60% are considered fully vaccinated.
Since the start of the pandemic, 699 Alaska residents and 26 nonresidents have died with the virus.
[COVID-19 vaccines for younger children are expected next month. Here’s what that might look like in Alaska.].
About 9.17% of COVID-19 tests returned positive results based on a seven-day rolling average Friday.
[Correction: This story has been updated to remove a reference to FDA approval of low doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for children ages 5-11; the FDA has granted emergency use authorization, not full approval.]
Alaska on Tuesday reported 11 more virus-related deaths, 753 new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations near record levels.
Alaska’s case rate over the past seven days remains the highest in the country and nearly five times the national average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The deaths reported Tuesday involved an Anchorage man in his 50s; a man and a woman from Anchorage in their 60s; two women and one man from Anchorage in their 80s or older; a Fairbanks man in his 50s; a Fairbanks man in his 80s or older; a man and a woman from North Pole, both in their 70s; and a nonresident in his 50s who was diagnosed with COVID-19 in Fairbanks.
[Alaska Railroad rescinds employee vaccine mandate just days after announcing policy]
A total of 688 residents and 26 nonresidents in the state have died with the virus. Over the past week, Alaska’s death rate per 100,000 is the ninth-highest among U.S. states, but looking at the pandemic overall, Alaska has the fourth-lowest death rate in the country, according to CDC data.
While the state’s daily virus counts have plateaued recently, virus-related hospitalizations and deaths typically follow a few weeks behind spikes in cases, and hospital administrators say it may take weeks for a decline in cases to be reflected in hospitalization numbers.
As of Tuesday, hospitals reported having 234 COVID-positive patients, including 37 people on ventilators — a reflection of continued stress on the state’s health care system brought on the rapid spread of the delta variant in recent months.
About 64.8% of eligible Alaskans have received at least one vaccine dose, and around 60% of eligible Alaskans are considered fully vaccinated.
Statewide Tuesday, 9.32% of tests came back positive based on a seven-day rolling average.
[FDA advisers endorse reduced dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5 to 11]
Alaska on Monday reported five additional COVID-19 deaths, 229 hospitalizations and 1,686 more cases recorded over the weekend.
The state occupied the top spot in the country for the highest case rate Monday, with 550 cases per 100,000 people over the past week — over four times the national average of 124.7 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
While there have been some slight ups and downs among case rates, hospitalizations and deaths, the state has so far continued on a level trajectory, state epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin said Monday.
“We’re not seeing at this point any clear downward trend in cases,” he said.
On Friday, there were 529 more cases identified, with another 800 positive test results coming in Saturday and 357 cases Sunday, state data showed Monday.
Nationally, cases rates are currently highest in large, rural states like Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and North Dakota, McLaughlin said. They’re all seeing similar sustained, high case rates.
Over a fifth of Alaska’s hospitalized patients in Alaska were COVID-positive as of Monday, continuing a weeks-long stretch of elevated virus hospitalization numbers. High case counts and hospitalizations pushed 20 facilities statewide to activate crisis standards of care last month, though the situation varies widely from facility to facility and day to day.
[September was Alaska’s deadliest pandemic month. Here’s what that might tell us about the future of COVID-19 in the state.]
Hospitalizations hit a record high once again on Friday, further underscoring just how full the state’s hospitals are, said Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association.
While hospitalizations might dip a bit for a few days, they’ve continued to bounce back up, both in Anchorage and at hospitals on the Kenai Peninsula, in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and in the Interior, Kosin said.
[What’s bringing people to Anchorage’s COVID-19 vaccine clinics: Work mandates, high case counts and good timing]
An influx of hundreds of state-contracted health workers from Outside has brought some relief to hospitals dealing with staffing shortages. But, Kosin said, capacity constraints continue to be the same with intensive care units in overflow and spillover status.
“Our hospitals are still getting hit really hard,” he said.
The five additional deaths reported Monday mean that so far, 678 Alaskans and 25 nonresidents have died with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, state data showed.
The deaths involved a Kodiak man in his 50s, an Anchorage woman in her 50s, an Anchorage man in his 50s, a Wasilla man in his 40s and an Anchorage woman in her 70s.
Fairbanks Memorial Hospital on Monday also reported the death of a 53-year-old with COVID-19. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that death was reflected in state data.
Statewide, 9.21% of tests came back positive based on a seven-day rolling average.
Visit Healthcare operates a vaccination site near the ice rink in the Dimond Center in Anchorage. Photographed Aug. 23, 2021. (Bill Roth / ADN)
In Alaska, at least one COVID-19 death — but usually two or more, and as many as 10 — was reported for each day in the month of September, state data shows.
It was the deadliest month of the pandemic so far, with 138 people dead.
September 2021 broke records on multiple other fronts, including the number of COVID-positive patients in Alaska’s hospitals and daily case counts. Elevated hospitalization and case numbers have carried on into October.
Health experts say the darkest, grimmest weeks of the pandemic can teach us that without more vaccinations and prevention measures, the potential for a continued surge or a new one remains, and the pandemic’s deadly toll will likely continue until cases decrease.
Vaccines — which are proven to decrease the likelihood of severe illness, hospitalization and death from the virus — have been widely available in the state for months. Clinics and local pharmacies have offered the preventive shot for free, every day, for much of this year.
But the state’s vaccination progress has slowed. On the first day of September, 61.3% of Alaskans older than 12 had their first dose of the vaccine. Currently, that number stands at 64.5%, rising only a little over three percentage points.
In a weekly report, state health officials said cases are plateauing in several communities. In Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, health officials wrote, there’s no clear evidence of an upward or downward trajectory.
“Regardless of the trajectories, intense community transmission is continuing to occur and is causing significant illness, death, and demand on the health care system,” they wrote.
Janet Johnston, former Anchorage Health Department epidemiologist, said that until more people get vaccinated, the coronavirus will continue to spread.
“We’re going to keep seeing high rates of cases and hospitalizations and deaths,” Johnston said. “In some ways, it feels like unfortunately, the story hasn’t changed the behavior of the virus. It’s more transmissible, but it’s still transmitted the same way.”
[Alaska reports 6 deaths, 877 cases Friday as COVID-19 hospitalizations remain near record level]
And while the virus continues to transmit at a high rate in Alaska and the rest of the world, there’s a chance it will mutate, she said. Given how much virus is being spread, Johnston said, it’s hard to believe there won’t be more serious mutations in the future beyond the current delta variant.
“Which, again, is the reason why we need to get people vaccinated and get the case counts down so we have less virus transmitting,” Johnston said.
Given how high case rates have been, it’s not a surprise that the state had so many deaths, said Dr. Benjamin Westley, who treats COVID-19 patients in Anchorage. Hospitalizations can lag for weeks after someone gets sick, and deaths can lag a month or two.
“September was a bad month, and unfortunately, I think people can expect to the next couple of months are going to have pretty high death numbers compared to what we’re used to,” Westley said.
Resident and nonresident COVID-19 deaths by week. (Screengrab of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services’ COVID-19 dashboard)
There’s a lot of virus circulating in the state right now. And the virus is especially bad for those who are unvaccinated, he said.
“There’s no way to avoid death when this many people that are unvaccinated are getting COVID,” Westley said.
The state’s been able to mostly avoid a large number of deaths compared to other states because of its relatively younger population, hospitals that weren’t extremely full and a lack of large nursing homes. But that will likely change, Westley said.
“Clearly, our death rate amongst other states is going to rise,” he said. “You can’t have more COVID than any other state for three or four weeks on end without expecting the deaths to go up.”
Anchorage’s recently passed ordinance requiring masks in indoor public spaces could help push COVID-19 numbers down. With that type of mitigation occurring in the state’s biggest city, cases should start to decrease in the next week or so, according to Westley.
There are several exceptions to Anchorage’s emergency mask ordinance. Multiple businesses — as well as the city’s municipal manager — have highlighted those exclusions to employees and/or customers, and questions remain about how the ordinance will be enforced. Mayor Dave Bronson and his administration opposed the mask mandate, and the municipal manager’s office is in charge of handling complaints about mask ordinance violations.
In response to a question about the city health department’s plans for the approaching months of the pandemic, Bronson spokesman Corey Allen Young said in an email that the department would “continue to test, vaccinate and strongly encourage monoclonal antibody treatment, as well as strongly encourage non-pharmacological mitigations.”
“As we have seen, the Delta variant is too unpredictable,” Young said.
September’s COVID-19 cases overwhelmed hospitals, a situation the state had largely avoided for many months during previous surges, said Dr. Tom Hennessy, an affiliate faculty member with the University of Alaska Anchorage and previous director of the CDC’s Arctic Investigations Program.
“This has been a really tough stretch, and it’s pretty clear we’re not through it yet,” he said.
While it looks like cases may have plateaued, they’re plateauing at a really high level, which Hennessy said is discouraging given how effective vaccines are and how much we know about the virus. Alaskans could have done better at applying those tools earlier in the summer to help blunt the surge, he said.
The state didn’t meet its goal of high vaccination levels — at the start of the surge back in early July, only half of eligible Alaskans had been vaccinated.
“That just wasn’t enough. It left a large proportion of the population vulnerable to this new strain,” Hennessy said.
A lot of the proven pandemic prevention measures fell out of practice. People weren’t masking or social distancing the way they were earlier in the pandemic.
“It seemed like we forgot the lessons that we learned in the first year of the pandemic and just either got tired or people just got frustrated, or just ignored what we had learned,” he said.
That led Alaska to where we are now.
What does this all mean for the future? It’s hard to predict, Hennessy said, “but I think one of the things is pretty clear is that on a population level we are still vulnerable in Alaska.”
Vaccination levels aren’t high enough to stop the spread of the virus. This summer demonstrated that the state’s large portion of unvaccinated people spread the virus, he said.
“And we’re still in that position,” Hennessy said.
Even assuming that some of the unvaccinated people now have natural immunity from the recent surge, Hennessy said there are still enough people without immunity to continue the current surge or create another one if people don’t take actionsto stop spread.
“I think it’s an important turning point opportunity for Alaska,” he said, “to see if we can get to the point where we can protect ourselves when we have the tools to do that.”
Alaska on Friday reported six deaths and 877 new COVID-19 cases as virus-related hospitalizations hovered in record territory.
The latest count is part of what health officials this week have described as a potential plateau in new cases, though officials say that there’s not enough evidence to say cases have begun declining, and that current counts are still extremely elevated.
Alaska’s case rate per 100,000 over the last week remains the highest in the nation, according to CDC data.
The newly reported deaths involved five residents, including an Anchorage man in his 50s, an Anchorage man in his 70s, an Anchorage man in his 80s or older, a woman from the Bethel Census Area in her 80s or older and a Fairbanks woman in her 70s. The state also reported another nonresident death involving a woman in her 50s who was diagnosed in Wasilla.
Fairbanks Memorial Hospital separately reported two COVID-19 deaths involving patients there. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those deaths were reflected in the state’s data.
In total, 673resident deaths tied to the virus and 25nonresident deaths have reported in Alaska since January 2020.
By Friday, there were 225 people hospitalized with the virus around Alaska — just below a new record of 235 set Thursday. Before this week, the previous hospitalizations record was 223 on Sept. 25.
Administrators say COVID-19 hospitalizations will likely remain at high levels across much of the state for at least the next few weeks. Hospitalizations are considered a lagging indicator, which means that declines in cases will take a few weeks to be reflected in hospitals.
“I just hope we all realize that we’re not out of this thing yet,” Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, said Friday.
In Mat-Su, nearly half of all hospital patients were sickened with COVID-19, and zero ICU beds remained available, state data showed. In the Fairbanks North Star Borough, a third of all hospital patients had COVID-19, and three ICU beds remained open.
After months of prolonged stress on the state’s health care system, it’s easy to become desensitized to these kinds of numbers, Kosin said.
But “to manage a hospital floor with that level of admissions that otherwise would not be there at that volume is unprecedented,” he said. “Until we can clear these admissions out, and really stop seeing sustained volumes at this levels, our hospital system in many respects is compromised.”
[Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective in younger children]
Crisis standards of care are active at 20 health care facilities across the state, and Kosin said challenges persist around full ICUs, scarce resources and the occasional rationing of care. A boost from state-contracted Outside health care workers has helped, but it has not solved the crisis inside hospitals, Kosin said.
“Everybody is under pressure right now,” he said.
Just under 65% of Alaskans 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Over the last week, 9.89% of all COVID-19 tests came back positive.
Alaska on Wednesday reported 830 cases of COVID-19,eightdeaths and more than 200 virus-related hospitalizations statewide.
State health officials say that the latest counts reflect a relatively flat trend in new COVID-19 cases in recent days — but they’re still not seeing a significant decrease in cases or hospitalizations across the state just yet.
“We continue to have about five times the national average in the number of cases per 100,000,” Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, said on a public call Wednesday afternoon. She described the state’s recent case trend as “flat-ish.”
In hospitals, “the situation is still just as serious and pressure-filled as it has been,” said Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, on Wednesday.
There are currently at least 205 people hospitalized with the virus around the state, including 29 on ventilators. Those high numbers represent a continued, substantial burden on hospitals in Alaska, 20 of which activated crisis standards of care last month, though the situation varies widely from facility to facility.
“We’re still seeing those situations where it’s challenging for bed placements, we’re still seeing our ICUs extremely busy,” Kosin said. “I think we’re more accustomed to dealing with it now that it’s been ongoing at this level for a few weeks, and now that we have relief staff. But it’s still extremely stressful.”
Despite the continued challenges in hospitals, an influx of state-contracted health workers from the Lower 48 has helped with morale and helped meet demand, according to Kosin.
During the latest surge, hospital staffing has posed one of the most significant challenges, and having hundreds more health care workers available to staff beds has increased capacity at facilities, he said.
“But it doesn’t mean that the pressure on the system has softened,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to see hospital operations normalize for at least a few weeks, just because we’re operating at such an intense level right now.”
After the state on Tuesday recorded an additional 66 COVID-19 deaths that mostly occurred in September, another eight deaths were reported Wednesday. Of the eight, seven occurred in October, and one from May was identified through a standard review of death certificates.
Government agencies rely on death certificates to report COVID-19 deaths. If a physician judges that a COVID-19 infection contributed to a person’s death, it is included on the death certificate and ultimately counted in the state’s official toll, health officials say.
The newly reported deaths involved an Anchorage man in his 80s, an Anchorage woman in her 80s, an Anchorage woman in her 60s, a Juneau woman in her 50s, a Soldotna man in his 50s, a Fairbanks man in his 70s and a Fairbanks woman in her 70s, plus an Anchorage man in his 70s who died in May.
A total of 667 Alaska residents and 24 nonresidents have now died with the virus since January 2020. September 2021 was the deadliest month of the pandemic so far.
By Wednesday, 64.4% of Alaskans 12 and older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
State health officials said Wednesday that Alaska children as young as 5 would mostly likely become eligible to get vaccinated as soon as next month.
Alaska has preemptively been allocated 33,000 doses of Pfizer’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccine, which is about enough to vaccinate 44% of kids in that age range, said Matt Bobo, immunization program director with the state health department.
A federal advisory committee to the CDC is scheduled to meet the first week of November to discuss Pfizer’s application to approve vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
“Once that happens, then we can start administering that vaccine,” Bobo said.
Of all tests conducted in Alaska over the last week, roughly one in ten came back positive, state data showed.
Epidemiologists say a positivity rate over 5% is an indication of widespread transmission and not enough testing being done.
Alaska on Tuesday reported 16 recent COVID-19 deaths, a sign of the lingering impacts of the record-level case counts and hospitalizations the state was experiencing in September and early this month.
The state on Tuesday also reported 475 new cases, including 464 among residents and 11among nonresidents — part of a possible leveling off in daily cases that health officials say they’re continuing to watch closely.
Ten of the newly reported deaths involved Anchorage residents: a man in his 20s, a woman in her 30s, a man in his 40s, two men and a woman in their 50s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 70s and two men in their 80s. Other Alaskans who died included three Fairbanks men — one in his 40s and two in their 60s — along with two Kenai men, one in his 50s and the other in his 60s. A Cordova woman in her 60s also died with the virus.
Alaska’s deadliest month of the pandemic so far has been December 2020, when 100 COVID-19 fatalities were reported. But September and August 2021 mark the second- and third-deadliest months, with 76 and 75 deaths reported respectively. It can sometimes take a few weeks to verify cause of death, which means those numbers could be updated in the coming weeks.
Still, Alaska’s overall death rate per capita is among the lowest in the country since the pandemic began, and Alaska currently falls in the bottom third among U.S. states for its per capita death rate over the past week. At least 590 Alaskans and 22 nonresidents have died with coronavirus infections.
While the last week saw a 9% decrease in cases compared to the week before, Alaska continues to report the nation’s highest number of cases per 100,000 residents in the previous seven days, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The statewide seven-day average test positivity rate — the proportion of positive results out of total tests performed — was 10.78% as of Tuesday, a pandemic high. Anything over 5% indicates high transmission and inadequate testing, authorities say.
[Several Republican lawmakers push for easier access to ivermectin to ward off COVID]
In Anchorage, where city health officials last week announced they were scaling back COVID-19 testing efforts as the result of an increased number of people seeking tests and a lack of funds to pay for those tests, the average positivity rate was 12%.
The number of people hospitalized has fallen slightly in recent days. By Tuesday, there were 186 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized around the state, including 26 people on ventilators. A few weeks ago, the state reported a record high of 217 hospitalizations — a number that doesn’t always include people past their infectious period who still need hospital care.
Twenty health care facilities around the state are operating under crisis standards of care, though not all have enacted crisis mode and any decisions to prioritize treatment are fluid and made on a daily basis.
And while hospitals are still dealing with high patient loads and strained resources, they recently received some relief from Lower 48 health care workers. As the result of a state contract signed last month, nearly 500 health care workers have arrived in the state — including 275 nurses who received their emergency credentials on an accelerated timeline, according to the state Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.
Hospital leaders say vaccination is the best way to prevent severe illness and death from the virus. Roughly 40% of all eligible Alaskans are not fully vaccinated. Almost 64% of eligible Alaskans had received at least one dose of vaccine as of Tuesday.
Among Alaskans who have already had COVID-19, the chance of getting it again in July and August was 24% higher for unvaccinated residents compared to fully vaccinated residents, according to the most recent monthly COVID-19 update that the state Division of Public Health released last week. The report also showed vaccine breakthrough cases were on the rise in August, partly due to waning immunity over time, although the proportion of vaccine breakthrough cases overall has become more consistent since the delta variant became dominant.
Pfizer booster shots are now available in Alaska, and health officials say those who are eligible — including adults who received their second Pfizer vaccine dose at least six months ago and are either 65 and older or at high risk of severe illness — should consider getting the extra shot as a way to further protect themselves against COVID-19.
Alaskans can visit vaccines.gov to search for a vaccine provider near them, or call the state’s coronavirus helpline, 907-646-3322, from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends to get local assistance making an appointment. Many, but not all, vaccine providers in the Anchorage area are also listed at anchoragecovidvaccine.org.
[State reports 4 COVID-19 deaths and more than 2,750 cases over the weekend]
Josh Gardner, a nationally certified medical assistant, gave Kael Harrod, 15, his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at the Visit Healthcare vaccination site in the Dimond Center on Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Alaska’s coronavirus pandemic still isn’t over — and we’re continuing to answer your questions. Here, we provide updates on the state’s COVID-19 vaccine prize drawing, other vaccination efforts, booster shots and getting tested in Anchorage.
Have a question of your own? Drop it in the form at the bottom of this article.
Has the state’s COVID-19 vaccine prize drawing boosted Alaska’s vaccination rate? What are the odds of winning $49,000?
In response to rising cases driven by the delta variant and a lagging vaccination rate, the state last month launched a vaccination prize drawing to encourage Alaskans to get vaccinated. Now, one newly vaccinated adult and youth each week through October will receive prizes of $49,000 apiece.
So far, state data shows that after a few weeks of holding steady, daily vaccinations rose in late September. On Oct. 1, over 3,000 Alaskans got the shot; daily doses through July were below 1,000 most days. More recent daily vaccination numbers for October appear to reflect a decrease.
The state’s COVID-19 vaccinations dashboard shows the number of vaccine doses administered by date and manufacturer. (Screengrab from Alaska Department of Health and Social Services COVID-19 dashboard)
By Friday, 63.7% of eligible Alaskans had received a dose of vaccine. Early this year, the state’s vaccination rate was the highest in the country. Now Alaska continues to lag behind the majority of other states, and is currently 30th in the nation.
The role the prize drawing has played in boosting rates is difficult to parse out — other states have seen an uptick in vaccinations when cases rise, and cases in Alaska rose dramatically through late summer — but some health officials say they believe the sweepstakes program has been effective.
“Thousands of Alaskans are getting vaccinated every single week, and from our perspective, a single shot in the arm is a success,” said Kati Capozzi, Alaska Chamber president, during a recent call with reporters. The Chamber is administering the program, which is funded with federal CARES Act money.
“We’ve heard anecdotally from pharmacists across Alaska that there are plenty of people walking into their shop saying, ‘I’m here because I want to win $49,000,’ so we’re pleased with the program,” Capozzi said. “We know that it is motivating Alaskans to get vaccinated.”
[COVID immunity through infection or vaccination: Are they equal?]
But some Alaskans don’t seem to know about the lottery or that they need to enter the same week they get the shot by visiting a website set up by the state, Capozzi said. In the first week of the lottery, about 40% of people that got vaccinated entered to win. The second week, only 30% of newly vaccinated individuals entered, and by the third week, that percentage had fallen to 25%, Capozzi said.
The winners are randomly selected from two age groups: Alaskans 18 and older, who win cash, and then those between 12 and 17 years old, who receive $49,000 through the Alaska 529 education savings plan, where the money is invested for the child’s education. Parents or guardians of the youth winners also receive $10,000 in cash if they’re vaccinated.
Last week, about 2,520 Alaskans received their first dose of the vaccine, but only 586 people entered to win. The week before, only 693 Alaskans enter to win. That means the odds of winning $49,000 have been extremely high in recent weeks — about one in 300.
A one-time prize of $49,000 also will be awarded to one Alaska adult and one youth who were vaccinated before Sept. 2. This group needs to enter before Oct. 30 and will be announced in the final week of the sweepstakes.
[Elective procedures become a flashpoint in the debate over Anchorage’s hospital capacity]
Should I get a vaccine booster shot, and if so, where can I get one?
Booster shots are now available in Alaska, and health officials say those who are eligible should consider getting the extra shot as a way to further protect themselves against COVID-19.
Alaskans who are eligible include those who received their second dose of Pfizer’s vaccine more than six months ago, and also meet any one of the following criteria:
• You’re 65 or older.
• You’re a resident of a long-term care facility or a staff member working at one.
• You’re 18 or older and you have an underlying medical condition, including asthma, diabetes or obesity.
• You’re 18 and older and you work in a high-risk setting, including a health care facility, school or grocery store.
Alaskans who fall into these categories — especially older adults and those with underlying medical conditions — “really should get that booster dose” of Pfizer’s vaccine, Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, said this week. Guidance for those who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine are forthcoming, and Alaskans who initially received those vaccines should wait before getting a booster.
Back in August, the FDA also authorized third shots for some immunocompromised people, including those who have received solid organ transplants and others with similarly weakened immune systems.
The recommendation for the booster shot for higher-risk populations was based on some studies that have shown the effectiveness of the vaccine may decrease over time. Some CDC data showed that for people over 65, protection against hospitalization had dropped from about 85% to 70% in the past six months for the Pfizer vaccine and from about 90% to 85% for the Moderna vaccine. A recent report from Alaska’s Division of Public Health that examined virus cases through August 2021 determined that vaccine breakthrough cases have become more common in recent months, and cited waning immunity over time as one factor.
So far in the state, there have been over 24,000 people who have received a third dose(for immunocompromised individuals) or booster shot. Boosters are available at most pharmacies, providers’ offices and ongoing vaccine clinics around the state, and eligibility will not need to be proven to get the shot, officials say.
Alaskans can visit vaccines.gov to search for a vaccine provider near them, or call the state’s coronavirus helpline, 907-646-3322, from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends, to get local assistance making an appointment. Many, but not all, vaccine providers in the Anchorage area are also listed at anchoragecovidvaccine.org.
Can and should I still get a free COVID-19 test in Anchorage?
City officials in Anchorage this week said that the municipality was scaling back its COVID-19 testing efforts — including reducing testing site hours and changing guidance on who should get tested — as a result of an increased number of people seeking tests in recent months, and a lack of funds to pay for those tests.
The change came at a moment when, according to state and city data, Anchorage is seeing its highest percentages of tests returning positive results since the start of the pandemic. By Friday, about 1 in 10 people getting tested were getting back a positive test result.
Testing is an important public health tool, and state health officials continue to recommend that anyone who has any symptoms of the virus — even very mild ones, like a runny nose or a headache — should get tested. People who are a close contact of someone with a confirmed or suspected case of the virus should also get tested three to five days after their exposure, the CDC recommends.
Anchorage residents can still visit anchoragecovidtest.org daily to find hours and testing locations near them.
Although some testing locations on that site now include a note that say they should only be used by people who have COVID-19 symptoms or who are a close contact of someone who tested positive, a city health department spokesperson said the note is a recommendation, not a requirement, and that no one will be turned away from using those locations. Other testing locations, such as the one at the Alaska Airlines Center or those at Walgreens, don’t include that guidance.
Alaska on Friday reported 839 cases of COVID-19 and two additional deaths tied to the virus, according to state data.
By the end of this week, Alaska’s daily COVID-19 case counts appeared to be slightly leveling off from prior weeks of steady case increases. However, case counts remain far above last winter’s peak, and on Friday, the number of COVID-positive patients hospitalized rose slightly while the state’s percentage of positive tests hit an all-time high.
State health officials said this week that they were cautiously optimistic about the latest virus data trends, but there’s still widespread virus transmission in the state and the pandemic is far from over.
By Friday, Alaska’s average test positivity rate over the last week had reached a record high of 10.12%. That means about one in 10 COVID-19 tests performed came back positive. Epidemiologists say a rate above 5% can indicate widespread transmission in the community and a need for more testing.
Meanwhile, officials in Anchorage said this week that virus testing efforts are now being scaled back — including reducing testing site hours and changing guidance on who should get tested — as the result of a dramatic rise in the number of tests being sought and a lack of funds to pay for them. Anchorage’s COVID-19 surge swelled through late summer, bringing the municipality’s case counts to pandemic highs as more people were being tested.
Alaska’s case rate over the last week is also still the highest in the nation — 779 cases per 100,000 residents — and well above the second-worst state, Montana, which has a rate of 593 cases per 100,000, according to the CDC.
By Friday, there were 186 people hospitalized with the virus around the state, including 30 people on ventilators. Hospitals say that number doesn’t always include people past their infectious period who still need hospital care.
Alaska’s hospitals continue to report being overburdened and understaffed.
Twenty health care facilities across Alaska have activated crisis standards of care, giving them the option to prioritize care for patients most likely to survive if scarce resources make that decision necessary.
In practice, that means hospitals around the state are evaluating what they have the capacity to do each day and, in some cases, are postponing some “elective,” but still urgent, procedures.
[Elective procedures become a flashpoint in the debate over Anchorage’s hospital capacity]
Of the 839 cases reported by the state Friday, 825 involved residents and 14 involved nonresidents.
The newly reported deaths involved a Fairbanks woman in her 80s and a nonresident man in his 50s who tested positive in Anchorage. In total, 570 Alaskans and 22 nonresidents in the state have died with the virus. Alaska is 29th in the nation for its 7-day per capita death rate. Its death rate since the start of the pandemic is the third lowest.
By Friday, 63.7% of Alaskans 12 and older had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
In August, just 19% of all COVID-19 hospitalizations and a third of all cases involved people who were vaccinated, according to a state report published this week.