Some Background and Notes:
[UPDATE: October 27, 2023 - Since the State has retired the COVID Dashboards, it seems a good time to end this page. It's gotten very long and bulky. I might start a new page following the State's new focus on Respiratory Viruses. But I'll do one last update here - see the weekly updates below.]
[UPDATE: October 19, 2023 - the State of Alaska has 'archived' the COVID dashboards and is not reporting COVID cases via a new Respiratory Virus site that includes COVID with flu and RSV. Not sure how long I'm going to keep tracking or how but I've got two of their charts up in my latest update below.]
[UPDATE Monday April 11,2022: It appears that Alaska is only going to update once a week now - Wednesdays. And with less info. I'd like to quit these updates, but while lots of people are done with COVID stuff, I suspect COVID is not done with is.]
Alaska COVID-19 #1 and #2 got too big and were slow and bulky. I'm hoping I'll be able to end this one before that happens here. I'm cautiously optimistic. Here's a link to the State's Dashboard main hub. From there you can get to a number of other hubs.
These pages began on March 11, 2020 when I realized the state data was disappearing each day as new data came up. There was no way to compare today's numbers to previous ones. Were we getting better or worse? How much? You couldn't tell.
Eventually the State set up the Dashboards and there are data bases you can get to - though you have to work a bit. But there were regular updates and old numbers changed. So I kept doing this so that if someone wanted to see what the State originally posted, before adjustments, they could.
I also learn a lot about how things are going.
So, there's the chart (which goes back to March 11, 2021) and my daily short spotlight on the new numbers below. On this third version, those start on May 3, 2021.
For new resident cases, there are two numbers: 150/143 = mine/state's. I get my number by subtracting yesterday's total cases from today's total. The State often makes adjustments and so the numbers often differ slightly. Sometimes, a lot. Also, the State lists COVID and Suspected COVID for currently hospitalized patients. I combine the two into one number. [May 13, 2022 - The chart hasn't been uploading at SCRIBD so I uploaded it as a new file there. It should be the same chart.]
[June 8, 2022 - new chart that starts with 4/6/2022. Old one was getting really big and SCRIBD wasn't taking it. Old one is still below]
New chart - from April 6, 2022 to present [I realize the chart is hard to view on here. You can also see it better on SCRiBD.
Alaska COVID Table From 4:6:22 by Steve
Old Chart - from March 15, 2020 - April 27, 2022
Alaska Covid-19 Data from 3... by Steve
Also, the State stop posting updates on weekends and holidays. So Mondays tend to have odd numbers as I post the difference between Monday and Friday new cases and the State has its on one day total of new cases for Mondays.Finally, my below the chart daily comments are in reverse chronological order - latest post first. Six new deaths. Not just numbers but flesh and blood people who were breathing a week ago, who now will never again talk to their children, grandchildren. Whose families have to figure out the death industry - who takes the body, cremate or bury, how fancy a coffin, to arrange some sort of funeral or memorial gathering. Then they have to deal with all the paper work, what to do with the family members clothings and lifetime of collected things. These are the most recent of the 1195 Alaskans to have died of COVID. I've notice I almost never see COVID mentioned in the obituaries. It's like suicide and AIDS used to be - no one wants to mention how they died.
Four more people were hospitalized on the cases dashboard. On the hospital dashboard we're told there are 34 (down 2) COVID patients in the hospital, two on vents (no change.) There are two more available ICU beds statewide (30) and three more in Anchorage (7).
793/272 new resident cases since Friday. That averages about 120 per day. We're going down, sloooowly. 13 new non-res cases.
Test Positivity is 7.5, down from 7.97, but still too high. Perhaps because people aren't reporting their home tests. Stay healthy. Mask up inside.
Alaska Covid-19 Data NewFor... by Steve
November 7, 2023 - still getting used to the new dashboard schedule and I want to start a new page with the respiratory virus updates.
Reported RSV is up one from nine to ten. Reported Flu up 19 from 465 to 484. Reported COVID is contradictory. The graph shows a decrease, but the Oct. 21 number was 222 and the October 28 number is 258, an increase of 35 cases.
October 27, 2023 - I'm a bit behind this week. If you missed the top UPDATE, I've decided to end my updates on this page. It's gotten very long and bulky. I'm thinking of beginning a new page (tab) that will follow the State's new Respiratory Virus page. Meanwhile, here's this week's update.
RSV cases are up from seven last week to nine this week.
Flu cases are up from 405 last week to 465 this week.
COVID cases are down from 236 last week to 222 this week.
October 19, 2023 - Last week I posted my COVID report on the main part of this blog, because it reported a significant change. The COVED-19 dashboard was being archived and the State was starting a new site to report on Respiratory Viruses. But I couldn't find a link to the new page. I've found it today and here's what it says about COVID.
Red is flu, Green is RSV, and blue is COVID.
So it looks like about 350 new cases statewide. The last weekly jump I reported in September was 278. I'm not sure how to keep this going, or if I even should.
There's also a regional chart which shows Anchorage doing reasonably well - considering it has the largest population. But there are giant spikes for Mat Su and the Northwest. Mat Su makes sense since it's the most conservative part of the state (based on who they elect to the State House) and likely to have to largest percent of COVID deniers and anti-mask folks.
It's true that COVID is less likely to kill you these days because there are better treatments than there were. Also people who have had COVID and/or been vaccinated have more resistance. But I'm still scheduled for a booster next week. Along with a flu shot and RSV shot. (This second chart is on the same link, but you have to then click on By Region.
[UPDATED Oct 20, 2023: The Alaska chart shows that flu is rising quickly here, but here's a different source showing Alaska those numbers in perspective. We're a flu hotspot:
September 12, 2023 - No new deaths reported. But the number of new Alaska residents testing positive for COVID is up from last month's (1015) to 1279. The state also reports 278 new positive tests in the last week. A month ago that number was only 178. Remember, these are only official tests, not people's home tests which tend not to get reported.
The main dashboard says there are 28 people in Alaska who are hospitalized with COVID. That's up from last month's 10. I can't get the new hospital dashboard to load, so I don't know the number in Anchorage or the number of available ICU beds. [Updated 9/21/2023: I checked back and the Hospital Dashboard uploaded. There were 28 (15) people in the hospital with COVID statewide (15 in Anchorage). Both sharp increases from the previous month numbers of 10 (1). The number of available ICU beds dropped to 28 -10 (statewide-Anchorage) from the previous 39-18.]
Anne Zink tweeted that the new booster vaccines should be out next week.
August 8, 2023 - Sort of better because there were no deaths reported for the last month and hospitalizations went down significantly - from 29 statewide (9 in Anchorage) to 10 (1). Available ICU beds dipped from 44 statewide - 15 Anchorage to 39 statewide -18 Anchorage. But my understanding is that these are for all patients, not just COVID patients. But that also means we can't tell if there are actually COVID patients in ICU. That would tell us if there are seriously ill COVID patients.
There were 1015 new positive tests reported. I assume people using private home test results aren't reported, so there are probably a fair number more. Last month 997 new positive tests were reported. The state doesn't actually report that number. Instead they report the total of all cases since COVID testing began. I get the number by subtracting the pervious month (since they cut back to once a month) from the current month. The state just reports the number for the last week - 178. Last month that number was 161. If we divide the 1015 by four weeks, we get 250/week, which is much more.
Reports of new strains in Europe and the delay in the newest boosters being available, things could get dicier soon.
This Twitter thread says there's a new upswing in people getting COVID. Be careful indoors. At this point it does appear getting COVID is less dangerous for those who are vaccinated, it doesn't hurt at all to wear a mask.
July 11, 2023 - In early June the State switched from weekly to monthly data updates. Today was the first monthly update.
No new deaths were reported in the last four or five weeks.
But there was a new total of 299,226 positive test results since the beginning. That number reflects close to half of all Alaskans. BUT some people may have tested positive more than once. And this only reflects the official numbers and doesn't reflect the positive tests people recorded with home testing kits.
What is significant is that there were 997 new positive tests reported since the last report on June 6. To make the math simpler I'll round up to 1000 over five weeks.. So, about 200 per week. The state only reported the weekly total (not the five week total) of 161. That's approximately where we were much of May, though the last week reported was down to 148/136. So, the monthly average of 200 per week takes us back to April numbers when the numbers were falling rapidly from the 500s and above to 280 per week.
The other numbers being reported are the hospital numbers. These have felt more accurate because the hospitals are reporting patients, it's just easier to keep track of.
The new numbers are 27 (hospitalized with COVID) but I don't see anything on how many of them are on vents, something they used to show. Now I can toggle between Statewide and different parts of Alaska, something I did for Available ICU Beds. (Did that change a while back and I didn't notice? Who knows?) So 27 hospitalized statewide and 9 in Anchorage.
22 available ICU beds statewide, six in Anchorage.
July 4, 2023 - The next state update is still a week away, but I wanted to share this link to a Twitter thread that reviews statistics on excess deaths - that is higher numbers of deaths than would be expected. They believe that COVID is directly or indirectly implicated. The key numbers are for the UK, but the trend seems to be global. Click the link to get the full thread: https://twitter.com/_CatintheHat/status/1675920908462989324
A gripping chart shows the number of children who have lost one, two, or more parents/guardians due to COVID. Here's the chart for the US:
I have good reason to keep tracking this.
Tuesday, June 14, 2023 - I didn't update this yesterday because the dashboards hadn't been updated, though the hospitalization numbers were up slightly. I looked again today and there was this notice on the Cases Dashboard:
"After Tuesday June 6 2023, COVID-19 data will be updated on a monthly schedule. The scheduled updates over the summer will take place on July 11, August 8, and September 12."
We've gone from daily to weekdays to a couple days a week to once a week and now once a month. I guess the State thinks there are higher priorities. Maybe they are right.
I guess that means second Tuesdays. I'll try to remember to check.
Last Updated Jun 06, 2023 at 08:51 AM
Tuesday, June 6, 2023 - We got the first, in ten weeks, update in deaths - 17 or 1.7 per week. Of course we don't know when in the last ten weeks they occurred or if there are even some older than that. Everything else is improved (down in all stats but up in ICU bed availability)
Number of new positive COVID tests is 148/136 (my number/state number). Mine subtracts last week's total from this week's. Not sure what the state number represents. We're usually close, sometimes the same. That's down about 20 from last week.
Hospitalizations are down significantly from 27 (2 on vents) to 17 (0). Available ICU beds are up significantly from 27-7(Anchorage) to 41-17. That's a big leap, but within the realm of plausibility unlike the April 18 numbers.
Still, a mask indoors protects against all sorts of airborne diseases and being sick is a drag.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023 - No new deaths reported. Hospital numbers haven't changed from last week - 27 hospitalized, two on vents, 27 available ICU beds statewide, seven in Anchorage. New positive COVID tests up slightly from 155/154 last week to 166/165 this week.
Tuesday, May 23, 2023 - Not much change from last week. The main Dashboard was working again. Positive COVID tests dipped a little further this week to 155/154 down about 15 to another post surge low.
Again, no new deaths have been reported. The hospital numbers are also steady. Again, 27 COVID patients hospitalized with two on vents. Statewide the number of available ICU beds remains the same at 27, but there are five more than last week in Anchorage - seven.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - [UPDATED Wednesday May 17, 2023]] The state did not post updates today. It's almost 9pm so I'm not expecting any numbers being posted today. This is the first time I can remember a day being skipped, but I'm guessing there were a few in the past. UPDATE: The numbers were updated yesterday, but not on the basic opening page. Today I went back to check. Still not updated, but on the CASES and HOSPiTAL dashboards there were new numbers.
No new deaths reported. 169/173 new positive COVID tests. That's a new low since long ago, down about 30 from last week.
27 COVID patients hospitalized (20) last week, two on vents (0 last week). Statewide, the number of available ICU beds remained the same at 27. In Anchorage it dropped eight to just two.
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 - The numbers weren't up this morning when I checked. The Feds said they were cutting back on COVID reporting and I wondered if the State was too. But an afternoon check found the new numbers.
No new deaths reported. This is the longest stretch with no deaths reported (6 weeks) since last May-July 2022 (7 weeks.) Could mean there haven't been any new deaths or they just haven't reported them yet.
199/200 (my calculation/State's number) new positive COVID tests reported. That's up slightly from last week.
20 people reported hospitalized with COVID this week, up from last week's 15. No one reported on vents either week.
The number of available ICU beds statewide is down this week to statewide to 27 (from 30 last week.) Anchorage numbers unchanged at 10.
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - The really good news today is the low number of new positive COVID tests - 188/188. Looking back at the tables, May 4, 2022 we had 1432/1440 new cases! We haven't been under 200 at any point in the last year and definitely longer.
No new deaths were reported this week. Usually, new deaths are updated every four or five weeks. But nothing today. I don't know if that means there haven't been any or they just haven't posted the number yet.
There were 15 COVID patients in hospitals in Alaska, none on vents. That's up from last week's 13, but down from last week's one person on a vent. And the number of available ICU beds statewide was down three to 31 and remained the same in Anchorage at 10.
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 - Last week's available ICU bed numbers were some sort of error and so big that someone should have caught it, but they didn't. This week they are back to 'normal' range - 34 statewide and 10 in Anchorage. That's up two statewide from two weeks ago and up one in Anchorage.
The number of people actually in the hospital with COVID is 13 (1 on vent), which is up one in both categories.
No deaths were reported this week. It's the fourth week in a row, which seems to be the normal gap in reports and we should get actual numbers next week, if the past is a predictor.
There were 280/281 (my calculation/state's number) new positive cases reported. That's a big drop from last week's 360/363. It does not, of course, include the results of home testing.
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| Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf |
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| Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf |
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| Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf |
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| Francine Orr, LA Times at AK Press Club Conf |
"COVID-19 UPDATE: Please note that we have had several reports of positive cases among members. If you show symptoms, PLEASE TEST and avoid contact with others as appropriate! Thank you for slowing the spread."]
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 - Sorry, I'm late getting this up. There was a huge increase in available ICU beds (from 32 statewide - 9 Anchorage, to 155 statewide and 127 Anchorage) and I emailed the State to get some explanation, but haven't heard back. And then I forgot. The April 25 numbers are back into the normal range so something got mis-entered last week.
There were no new deaths reported, but there were 360/363 new positive tests reported, pretty much the same as last week.
Tuesday, April 11, 2023 - New positive COVID tests down again - from 401/401 last week to 359/359 this week. This doesn't tell us about tests people did at home, but it's still a decline. The lowest numbers since Dec. 27, 2022. Deaths were (apparently) not updated, so no new deaths were reported. Hospitalizations down one from 24 to 23, and last week's two on vents are down to zero.
There are six fewer available ICU beds statewide (32) but four more in Anchorage (9).
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 - Relatively good news today. Deaths were updated last week, so no real news in that category - 0 reported, but they do that one every few weeks.
Best numbers are new COVID positive tests - down to 401/401 - the lowest total since January 3, 2022. Hospitalizations are up two from last week to 24 but people on vents is down one to (2) In comparison, on January 3, 2023 when new positive cases were 372/372, there were 28 (1).
I see fewer and fewer other folks with masks in indoor settings in Alaska. But I also notice that I have not had a cold or other respiratory illness since before the pandemic. Partly that's due to not being exposed to as many people at all, but also to masking.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 - They finally reported deaths after 5 weeks. There were 19. That's just under four deaths from COVID per week. Auto crashes killed 66 people in Alaska in 2020. That's slightly more than one per week. So, yes, people are still dying of COVID every day.
Hospitalizations for COVID are down by six to 22, but people on vents are up by 3 to 3 in Alaska. Number of available ICU beds stated the same statewide (33), but went up by nine (to 13) in Anchorage. That means outside of Anchorage had nine more people on vents.
New positive COVID tests is up to 514/512, the highest in the last three weeks.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 - I got the numbers Tuesday and updated the tables, but just realized it's Friday and I didn't update this report yet. Not much change. No new deaths reported. I expect they'll catch up next week. The problem with not reporting every week is: How will we know when there really aren't any deaths for a while? 496/497 new positive tests. That's up from last week. We were 582/582 two weeks ago and 777/771 four weeks ago.
28 folks hospitalized with COVID, none on vents. That's the same as last week. I'm guessing it was updated because there is a change in the ICU bed availability - 33 statewide and four in Anchorage is an improvement over last week's 29 - 1.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023 - Deaths not updated again - or no deaths for three weeks which seems unlikely. Positive COVID tests - 444/449 down from last week's 582/582, closer to the 450/451 of two weeks ago. Hospitalizations down down by 24% from last week's 35 (1 on vent) to this weeks 28 (0). But ICU availability dropped from 33 to 29 statewide and from 2 to 1 in Anchorage. But ICU use includes all patients who need one, not just COVID.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023 - Positive tests up 132 from last week's 450, no new deaths reported (doesn't mean there weren't any, just not reported yet), and hospitalizations down from last week's 44 to this week's 35, but this week there's someone on a vent while there hadn't been for several weeks. Available ICU beds up by four to 33 statewide, but remain at two in Anchorage.
The takeaway? COVID is still here. Most people seem to be less sick, but some get sick enough to be hospitalized. I haven't dug deeply enough into the state data to know who is still getting hospitalized and who's dying. Presumably a) those with little or no immunization and those who are older, if we go by national trends.
From the CDC - you can see the odds of being hospitalized go up by age, and it's starker for deaths. (This chart is as of Feb 6, 2023)
Here's one from Washington State that shows both hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status. Again, those getting boosters were significantly, but not absolutely, better protected from hospitalization and dying.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - The good news: new positive tests are down this week, from last week's 777/771 to the week's 450/451. (First number is last week's reported total to date of positive tests subtracted from this week's total/second number is what the state reports as new cases.) That's a good drop. Not sure of the cause. There was a holiday Monday, but that wouldn't be enough.
No new deaths reported, but that's expected since they did report last week and they generally wait several weeks to report again.
Hospitalizations are unchanged from last week at 44 (0 on vents). Perhaps there was no change, perhaps they just didn't update. Though available ICU beds declined four to 29 statewide and 2 (no change) in Anchorage.
Tuesday, February 21, 2023 - 13 new COVID deaths reported today. The first reported in three weeks, so it's an average of about 4 per week.
Hospitalizations are up from last week's 35 (0 on vents) to 44 (0) this week. The best number this week is ICU beds available - up six statewide and one in Anchorage to 33-2. But ICU beds are not confined to COVID patients.
New positive tests for Alaskan residents is 777/771, down marginally from last week's 786/677. The state's number (771) is closer to mine than last week. My number is simply last week's all time total positive tests subtracted from this week's.
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 - No new deaths reported. COVID patients in the hospital down to 35 from last week's 61. No one on vents. Available ICU beds pretty much unchanged 27 statewide - 1in Anchorage (down from two last week).
For new positive tests there's a big difference between my number 786 and the state's 677. Not sure why. Mine is simply the all time total last week subtracted from the all time total this week. Not sure how the state got its number. We've been pretty close the last few weeks. In any case, my number is very close to the 792 of two weeks ago, which was the highest number since September 2022 .
Tuesday, February 07, 2023 - Big jump in current hospitalizations from 49 (3 on vents) to 61 (0). New positive cases up 692/696 down from last week's 792/792, but still, the second highest number since September. Death's weren't updated from last week and sit at 1438 since the beginning.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023 - New COVID cases up 147 from last week's 655 to this week's 792. New deaths were reported last weeks, so we probably won't hear more on that for three or four weeks.
Hospitalizations down slightly after last week's big jump. From 52 (4 on vent) last week to 49 (3) this week. Given that there were 655 new cases last week, that's good. Or they haven't caught up with the data. But hospital data seem like the most consistently reliable. Available ICU beds increased marginally from 29 statewide and one in Anchorage last week to 30 and 3 this week.
Tuesday, January 17&24, 2023 - Not sure what happened to last week's report. [OH, it turns out I originally posted this AFTER last week's update.] I updated the chart and thought I'd updated here.[AndI did, but I'll just leave this all] There was a big increase in positive cases(649/650) last week, the highest since September 14, 2022! And close to double the previous week of 372/372. Hospitalizations were down slightly - from 33 (2 on vent) to 32 (3). Available ICU beds increased six statewide (to 32) and one in Anchorage (to 4). Though ICU beds, as I understand it, reflects all needs, not just COVID. Deaths weren't updated.
THIS WEEK - things got worse. New positive tests up slightly to 655/655. But hospitalizations jumped significantly to 52 (4 on vents) from last week's 33(3). Available ICU down somewhat from 32 statewide - 4 Anchorage to 29-1.
And the death count was updated. 18 more in the last five weeks for an average of 3+ per week.
The hospitalization increase makes sense given the jump in positive tests last week. There are still people who are unvaccinated and only about 11% have had two boosters.
Tuesday, January 17, 2023 - The most significant number in this week's dashboard's is new Alaska positive COVID tests - 649/650! Last week was 469/472. This week's new cases was the highest since September 14, 2022 when we were coming down from highs of over 2000 new positive tests. Is this a one time blip? Perhaps people getting tested for the first time after the holidays? We'll have to check on next week's numbers.
Deaths didn't change, meaning they just haven't updated that column. They seem to update every 3-5 weeks.
The number of hospitalized COVID patients dropped one from last wee to 33 from 34, but there was one more COVID patient on a vent (3) compared to last week. On the other hand, the number of available ICU beds statewide went up four to 28 and in Anchorage it went up by two to four. (ICU beds stats are all patients, not just COVID patients.)
Tuesday, January 10, 2023 - The deaths haven't been updated. But hospital numbers are up - 34 people are reported hospitalized with COVID, two on vents. That's up from 28 (1) last week. But there is also an increase in available ICU beds to 2i statewide (from 21 last week) and two (from one) in Anchorage. But as I understand it, that stat is for all health issues, not just COVID. So people going to the hospital are, in general, not as critically ill in the past, presumably due to vaccinations and past infections plus bettter medication and understanding.
But new positive tests jumped by 100 to 469/472 from last week's 372/372. (Yes, the state number deviated this time from my calculation. You can see the historical numbers in the charts above.
Begin 2023
Tuesday, January 3, 2023 - No new deaths reported. But there were 372/372 new positive COVID cases reported. The state and I have matching numbers this week. (Mine is based on subtracting last week's total cases from this week's. I think the State does other adjustments, but not sure what.
The 372 number is 40 more than last weekend eight less that two weeks ago. Since it was New Years week, I'm guessing fewer people got tested in public test places. We'll see what happens next week.
COVID patients in the hospital went down 12 from 40 to 28, and number of vents remained the same at one.
There are three fewer ICU beds available statewide (21) and two fewer in Anchorage (1).
Masks may not prevent most people in Alaska from getting COVID right now, but they may help prevent other airborne illnesses from spreading. And remember, 372 Alaskans did test positive this week for COVID.
END OF 2022
Tuesday, December 27, 2022 - The last report for2022. Almost nothing changed this week, leading me tobelive that Christmas might have had an effect on the updating.
No new deaths. Hospital numbers are unchanged. The only new numbers are new positive COVID test - 332/332. And since both my calculation (this week total - last week's total) is exactly the same as the State's, I'm guessing they didn't make any adjustments. They just did what I did. But that's all guess.
Lets compare where we are today compared to the January3, 2022 report:
Total deaths: 947 then/1418 now - 453 Alaskans were reported to have died of COVID this year
Total Alaskans Testing Positive: 154,369 then/288,123 now - 134,054 new positive tests this year. Almost as many as all of 2020 and 2021 combined
Total hospitalizations: 3269 then/4195 (11/22/22 was the last time that was reported) - 926 hospitalizations this year
Current Hospitalizations - first report Jan 2022 was 55 (22 on vents)/now 40 (1)
This was not a good year for COVID deaths or positive tests. But fewer people were hospitalied than the previous year, and while there are still 40 people hospitalized today with COVID, that's 15 fewer than at the beginning of the year and the number on vents dropped significantly.
Tuesday, December 20, 2022 - numbers moving in the wrong direction. Today was the catchup day for reporting deaths. There were 19 COVID deaths reported for the last four weeks. About five per week. And those are the ones directly related to COVID, not necessarily all the COVID related deaths.
There are 40 hospitalized COVID patients reported - up seven from last week. People on vents remains the same at one. Available ICU beds statewide remains at 24, but Anchorage is down one bed at three.
380/375 new cases were reported. That's up 26 from last week, but lower than previous weeks. We'll see next week which direction those numbers take. Other places are experiencing surges.
While 57% of Alaskans got their initial vaccine shots, only 10.4% are up to date on boosters. (Note the numbers oo the link changes over time) Boosters and masks folks. Even if you only get a mild case, you keep the virus alive and spreading to people whose bodies are not as resistant as yours.
Here's a link to make a vaccine appointment.
Tuesday, December 13, 2022 - Still getting new cases (354/322) but fewer than last week. No updates on deaths. Hospitalizations about the same: 33 hospitalized, one on vent - same as last week; 24 available ICU beds statewide (up one) and four in Anchorage (no change.) Health officials are saying masks protect against other airborne viruses besides COVID. I figure with a flu shot, a second COVID booster, and wearing masks where there are other people indoors, means my immune system is as good as I can get it and the mask minimizes the number of viruses it has to fight. I'd rather not get sick if I can help it. It also means getting enough sleep, exercise, and healthy food. The solstice is just a week off and then it will slowly start getting lighter. Unless you're in the southern hemisphere.
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 - No new deaths reported. Cumulative hospitalizations number is gone from the Dashboard I check. Current hospitalizations are up one to 33 and patients on vent has gone from zero last week to one this week. The number of available ICU beds slipped to 23 from 25 statewide, while Anchorage gained three beds for a total of four.
New cases: 496 more than reported last week, though the state's new case number is 422.
So there are at least that many people with COVID in the state, plus those with no symptoms or tested positive at home. So the odds of running into someone with COVID if you're out in public are probably not high, but not nil either. Depends on where you go.
Tuesday, November 29, 2022 - Keeping this going keeps getting harder. Today "total hospitalizations" was no longer available on the dashboards I've been using. Looked around a bit, but couldn't find it. It seemed to me one of the better numbers, because hospitals seemed to be more reliable in reporting numbers. Especially since so many people self test now.
Anyway, no new deaths reported. I'm expecting that to be updated next week or the following week. The total is 1399. Cumulative hospitalizations? The category is missing.
The hospital dashboard shows 32 COVID patients currently in the hospital (down from 37 last week) and no one on a vent, which is the same as last week.
Available ICU beds are down four (to 25) statewide and down one (to 1) in Anchorage. I believe that the ICU availability numbers include issues other than COVID.
There were 398 more cases in the state total of 286,561 than last week, but the state reported there were 414 new cases. That sort of discrepancy has been common.
Stay safe.
Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - [Somehow that chart got its own Nov 8 post, but I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be in last week's post, so I've moved it down there]
No new deaths reported this week (the death update was last week), but the number of COVID patients in Alaska hospitals is up eight to 37 (none on vents). Available ICU beds is up four to 29 statewide, and remains the same as last week in Anchorage at two.
There were 430/434 new positive cases reported this week. After dipping down to 287/355 two weeks ago, they're moving back up. Today's total is the highest in five weeks. (For those new here the first number is my subtracting last week's Alaska cases total from this week's. The second number is what the state reported as new cases.
We're at one of our low points in terms of COVID infections. But past low points have been followed but upswings.
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| From COVID Cases Dashboard |
A total of 285,343 people have been confirmed positive in Alaska since March 2020. That's 287 more people than reported last week. But the state reports 355 new positives this week. The dashboard I've been using all this time did show non-residents this time. Maybe they've combined the two and that accounts for the extra people. But that seems like too many. Last week there were only 13 new non-resident cases.
***I just noticed that as of November 8, 2022 the Dashboards will be updated on Tuesdays, not Wednesdays. So I've changed the date. I only saw that now (Wednesday).
Wednesday, November 2, 2022 - It would appear from the numbers posted that it's safer doing things in Alaska than it was, say last spring. No deaths reported this week (but last week was when they reported 20 and I'm guessing it will be three more weeks before they give us their accumulated death toll.
There were 14 new hospitalizations this week. The number of COVID patients in the hospital in Alaska is unchanged at 19 (though I'm guessing they aren't all the same people) and one person is on a vent. (It's been zero for six weeks.) There are one fewer available ICU beds in Alaska (from 28 last week to 27 this week) and there are two in Anchorage, up from zero last week. But I believe that number is not specially related to COVID.
There were 354/379 (my calculation/state's number) of new residents who tested positive this week and 13 more non-residents. But these numbers don't count home tests.
Let's hope this downward trend continues and it's not just a lull until another canny virus emerges.
Wednesday, October 26, 2022 - Four weeks of deaths were reported today - 20, or five per week. People so want to believe COVID is over, but 20 people have died of COVID in the last four weeks! I guess the vaccinated folks think those dying are unvaccinated. And it could be the case. I no longer have the energy to search through all the dashboards to see if that information is available.
We had 25 new hospitalizations, up from last week's five. Number of COVID patients hospitalized with COVID reported today was 19, down from last week's 28. No one on vents either week. Available ICU beds are up two, to 28 statewide, down five to zero in Anchorage. My understanding is that these reflect all patients, not just COVID.
There were 379/371 new resident patients reported. (379 is
my number = this week's total new cases - last week's.
The 371 is the state's report on new resident cases for this week. Occasionally we have the exact same number. This week we aren't off by much. New non-resident cases is eight. Down from last week's 11. I'm guessing this reflects a drop in non-residents required to test for jobs in Alaska. But I have nothing to base that on.
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - Almost all the numbers look better this week. No new deaths reported, but that's not unusual. We'll get a batch of deaths in a week or three.
There were only five new hospitalizations reported. That's the lowest increase since August 8, 2022 when there were also five reported. The number of COVID patients currently in the hospital (one of the more reliable numbers) is down 12 to 28 and there continue to be zero COVID patients on vents. I'm guessing that reflects better treatment available these days. There are three fewer (26) ICU beds statewide, but I believe those numbers reflect non-COVID patients as well. The Anchorage ICU bed availability stayed at five.
The number of new resident cases dropped sharply from 135 last week to 67 this week. Non-resident new cases were down to 11 from 67 last week. Again, I'd just point out that most people test at home and don't report the results to the state.
Wednesday, October 12, 2022 - Numbers moving in the right direction. No new deaths reported (last week was when they reported accumulated deaths, so none expected this week). 52 new hospitalizations. That's 18 less than last week, but it still means 52 people were sick enough to be hospitalized. Last week there were 31 COVID patients in Alaskan hospitals, today it says there are 40. No one on vents either week. The number of available ICU beds is up statewide (23 last week and 29 this week) and in Anchorage (3 last week, 5 this week.)
There were 514/498 new resident cases reported. That's down from last week's 637/536).
Stay well.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022 - Numbers are odd this week. There were 27 new deaths reported! While that's catchup from several weeks, it's higher than it's been a while.
And there were 70 new hospitalizations reported. By far the highest number in a long time. The most recent chart goes back to April 6, 2022 and the closest since then was 44 last week. I'm guessing they're also catching up with old, but previously unreported hospitalizations. (You can check the older charts above if you're really interested.)
Especially since the current number of hospitalized COVID patients is down three from last week to 31 and nobody on vents. Though available ICUs statewide is down six to 23 but in Anchorage they're up one to three.
The new resident cases are odd too- 637/536. My number - the first one - comes from subtracting last week's total from this weeks. The state just gives a number. Our numbers have been fairly close recently, but this week they are 100 off. I assumed the state calculates with automatically, but somehow they seem off by 100. Just a mistake? I've rechecked my math several times and I think I'm right. Non-resident cases are much lower, 135 new ones this week but 259 last week.
Wednesday, September 28, 2022 - Most numbers moved in the right direction. Only new hospitalizations jumped - from 17 last week to 44 this week. Even so, the total number of people in the hospital with COVID dropped from 37 (0 on vent) to 34 (0). My sense is the hospitalization numbers are the most accurate indicators because the hospitals have to know and report.
Deaths reported seem to be collected over a period of time and then reported. No new deaths this week or last week, though 25 were reported three weeks ago.
Also, new positive cases are probably low because people testing at home mostly don't report. That said, the number of new resident cases is down from 645/646 last week to 553/546 this week. (The first number is my subtraction of last week's total new cases from this week's total. The second number is the state's reported new resident cases.
Likewise, new non-resident cases is also down from 467 last week to 259 this week.
I got my Moderna Bivalent booster and my flu shot on Saturday. I'm hoping the optimistic reports of its effectiveness are justified, but will still wear a mask inside with others.
I'm also curious to know the vaccine and mask status of all the new cases and deaths. I do know people who are up to date on their vaccines who have gotten COVID, but they didn't need to go to the hospital.
USA Facts reports an average of 352 deaths per day in the last week in the US.
Wednesday, September 21, 2022 - The numbers are better this week. To the extend that the numbers are accurate, that's good news. No new deaths reported, but that's to be expected since they reported a bunch last week and they usually wait a couple of weeks before putting up new deaths. But we know nationwide hundreds of people are still dying daily of COVID. That's one or two 747 crashes per day! One World Trade Center every week or so. But the media coverage isn't there. It's been normalized.
17 new hospitalizations. That means people were sick enough from COVID they had to be taken to the hospital. Last week in Alaska. But the overall number of hospitalized COVID patients is down significantly from 66 last week to 37 this week. And both weeks had no one on vents. The number of available ICU beds statewide and in Anchorage is up one - to 22 and 2. But I believe this covers all ICU patients not just COVID patients.
New resident and non-resident positive tests is down to 645/646 and 467. Down 300 for residents and 77 for non-residents. These would appear to be the least reliable numbers because most people who do home tests don't report.
Get the new bivalent vaccine when you're eligible. Wear masks indoors. These are such tiny sacrifices - not just to keep yourself and family healthy, but to make it harder for the viruses to find hosts and evolve into nastier variants.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022 - I'm getting this up on Thursday. People are treating COVID as though it were gone. To the extent that I even forgot to update this yesterday. But the numbers are a reminder that this isn't over. And that people are still dying of COVID, even here in Alaska.
25 new deaths were reported this week. These are the first deaths reported in three weeks because, I'm assuming, it takes a while to gather these numbers. It would be truly shocking if these were all in the last week. It would be useful to know what the vaccination status of those dying was. They may report that somewhere, but I'm not digging deeper than the main dashboards now.
21 more people were hospitalized in the last week. Actual number of COVID patients in the hospital reported as 66, up four from last week. Number of vents is down two to zero.
Number of ICU beds available statewide is 21 (down from 34 last week) and one in Anchorage (down from two.) I believe this is not a COVID specific number, but includes all ICU beds in the state regardless of illness.
Even new resident cases are up - 980/950 compared to last week's 879/902. Ditto for non-resident new cases: 544 new cases, up from 519 last week. A regular warning on these last numbers - many, if not most, tests are self tests which tend not to be reported, so the reported numbers don't tell the whole story.
Wednesday, September 7, 2022 - The numbers this week are down. Even the hospital numbers which tend to be the most accurate, since at home testing tends not to get reported, and deaths appear to be aggregated for several weeks.
No new deaths reported. Only 8 new hospitalizations. Actual hospitalizations are down 18 to 62, people on vents down four to two. Available ICU beds is unchanged statewide at 34, but up one to two in Anchorage.
879/902 new residents cases, 519 new non-res cases. Both numbers are drops from last week (down about 300 for residents and about 200 for non-residents.)
Wednesday, August 31, 2022 - No new deaths reported. But three vents became vacant this week, which means we might see deaths reported in the next week or two.
Eight people reported hospitalized. The number of hospitalized COVID patients is up by one to 80. But only one is on a vent this week. Available ICU beds statewide is up eight statewide, but it's down one to just one in Anchorage.
New resident cases reported =1208/1208. (My number and the state's reported number are exactly the same this week, a rare event.) Non-resident cases this week 698. These numbers are inherently low since most people testing at home don't report the results.
But Mary Peltola was declared the winner tonight, so there's one more advocate for good health policy going to DC.
Wednesday, August 24, 2022 - New deaths reported today: 8. Last death update was two weeks ago, so this is sooner than last time. But the point is that people are still dying of COVID in Alaska. A total of 1304 have died. Will we have a memorial for them? Will they ADN post all their pictures like they do for people murdered each year?
14 more people were hospitalized with COVID, though the total number of hospitalized COVID patients statewide is down eight to 78, but people on vents are up one to 11. Available ICU beds statewide are down one to 26, but up one in Anchorage, but only to two.
1673/1664 new residents tested positive this week, that's up just over 200 from last week. Non-resident positives are also up, by 100, to 767.
Wednesday, August 17, 2022 - Big increase today was hospitalizations. Up 21 to 86, that's almost a 30% increase from last week's 65. People on vents also went to 10 from last week's one. Available ICU beds increased statewide from 24 to 27. But in Anchorage decreased from two to one.
No new deaths reported today (after last week's surge of 29 catchup deaths reports.
Total number of reported new resident cases dipped to 1465/1444, down 400. Non-resident new cases were down to 2131 from last week's 2259.
Wednesday, August 10, 2022 - I did get the chart updated yesterday, but not this entry. We got a slew of new deaths reported - 21. It's been 0 for the last three weeks so I'm assuming this is catching up from various reporting sources rather than 21 this week.
There were eight new hospitalizations reported and actual COVID patients reported in the hospital is down nine (from 74 to 65) and still one on a vent. At the same time, available ICU beds is down four statewide (to 24) and down two in Anchorage (to 2). But I believe this includes all ICU beds for all kinds of patients.
New resident cases was lower than last week to 1886/1887 (last week 2573/2160). Non-resident new cases also declined to 691 (from 1151). But again, that may well reflect that most people (?) are home testing.
Wednesday, August 3, 2022 - I jumped the gun and left this page before it had saved. So here's a recreation.
No new deaths reported. They seem to be saving deaths and reporting a bunch all at once. Same numbers for four weeks now. New hospitalizations = 4. Actual hospitalized COVID patients statewide is down (9) to 74 but still one on a vent. Available ICU beds the same at 28 statewide, but gained four (from 0) in Anchorage.
New resident cases 2573/2160 (first number is last week total subtraced from this week total; second number is state's reported new cases.) Non resident new cases is 1151, up from last week's 935.
People just need to wear masks. But we assess risk poorly. Eight times as many people died from COVID in 2020 than from guns. While vaccines and medication have cut the death rate, if we keep offering our bodies to these tiny terrorists for refuge and developing new strains, death rates will go back up.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - Busy day Wednesday, so only getting this up Thursday.
Deaths - no change from last week. It appears they catch-up every few weeks.
10 new hospitalizations listed. But there are now 83 people hospitalized with COVID and one on a vent. Last week it said 66 (1). Though there may have been more since that was the same number as the previous week. Available ICU beds wasn't updated last week either, but there are only 28 this week (39 last week) statewide and zero in Anchorage (9 last week.) That's not a good sign. My guess is that hospitalizations are one of the most accurate numbers. They get reports of hospitalizations.
Whereas with positive tests - too many people are testing at home and not reporting, so these numbers are way undercounted. Some universities and cities are testing the sewage systems to get more accurate results. (Yes you can test human waste for COVID.)
The official posted numbers of new resident cases 2,033/2,035) are down from last week (2,369/2326). But again, these are probably the least reliable numbers now due to home testing. Non-resident total was down to 935 new cases.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022 - Last week they seemed to have batched a bunch (23) of previously unreported deaths. Today no new ones were reported. But there were 18 new hospitalizations reported. The actual COVID Patients in the hospital and available ICU beds appear not to have been updated. They're the same numbers as last week. It could be nothing's changed, but I don't recall that happening before.
There were 2369/2326 new resident cases. 1,523 new non-resident cases reported.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - I'm writing this from the Anchorage Airport where 90% of the people - including all the TSA employees I say - are maskless. They aren't reading these updates, or they think a mask is more trouble than getting COVID. But the numbers are up again - as they have been steadily. And these are only the tests done at places that report them, not home tests.
After weeks of no new reported deaths, it seems that there was a backlog of unreported deaths - 23 new deaths in the Alaska death total this week. 17 new hospitalizations reported. Number of COVID patients in the hospital is up 11 to 66. Vents still at just one. Vacant ICU beds dropped 14 to 39 statewide and eight (to 9) in Anchorage.
There were 2462/2488 new resident cases of COVID. 1086 new non-resident cases.
Stay healthy as new strains evolve because there are so many people willing to host the viruses.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022 - No new deaths or new hospitalizations reported. Big drop in current COVID patients in hospitals - from 83 last week to 55 this week. But one person was added to a vent, for a total of one. The number of vacant hospital beds went up sharply from 34 last week statewide to 53. And from 3 to 17 in Anchorage. That's a big improvement.
The number of new resident cases is down slightly from 2597 last week to 2230 this week. There were 186 new non-resident cases not much fewer than last week.
It seems people are still getting infected but the symptoms are less severe and/or the treatments more effective.
Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - There have been no deaths reported since May 18, 2022. The cumulative state total is 1252. There were nine new reported COVID patient hospitalizations. (That number got inadvertently left out in the chart above, but you can get it by subtracting last week's total from this week's.)
There were 2597/2633 new resident cases! That's the third week in a row showing an increase. I still don't know why my number (subtracting last week total from this week) keeps being lower than the state number of new positive tests. Remember, these are only people who get official tests that are reported, not home testing. The number of new non-resident positive tests is also high - 1094.
There are 26 more people actually in the hospital (83) with COVID than last week(57), but no one on a vent last week or this. There are 34 available ICU beds (seven more than last week) statewide, but one fewer (3) in Anchorage.
Stay smart and healthy.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022 - No new deaths reported. Three new hospitalizations. COVID patients in hospitals currently is down from last week 61 to 57, no one on vents both weeks. Available ICU beds statewide is up to 27 from 25 statewide, and is unchanged at 4 in Anchorage.
2127/2123 new resident cases and 894 new non-resident cases.
Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - Numbers up and down and confusing.
No new deaths. The statewide death total since May 18, 2022 has been and remains at 1252. Either people are less sick and/or treatments are more effective. Or the numbers aren't caught up yet. Let's hope that zero deaths is accurate. The main dashboard reports two new hospitalizations (last week's total was 3767 and this week it's 3769.) But the hospital dashboard tells a different story. Last week we had 45 COVID patients in the hospital. This week there are 60. An increase of 15. However, we are down to zero people on vents (one last week.) There are five fewer available ICU beds statewide this week (25) but one more in Anchorage (4).
There were 1838/1904 new resident COVID cases. The first number = the total number from this week - total number from last week. The second number is the State's stand alone new cases number. Interesting though, is that there were 608 non-resident new cases. That's one fourth of the total combined cases.
Was at the airport post office this morning and the majority of people there were wearing masks. There are people around town who realize this isn't over.
Wednesday, June 8, 2022 - I've got the new chart up above the old one. Numbers still seem odd. Either no one is getting hospitalized anymore or dying, or the numbers are off.
No new deaths or hospitalizations on the cases charts. In fact the total hospitalized with COVID since the beginning was 10 FEWER than last week. But the hospital chart only has minor changes. The number of people hospitalized in Alaska with COVID is only down four people (49 to 45) and on vents down three people (4 to 1). But available ICU beds haven't changed statewide (30) and have gone down one in Anchorage (to 3).
Meanwhile there were 2241/2226 new resident cases reported. (My # comes from subtracting last week's total from this week's/State number is just posted). There were 652 new non-resident cases. So in the last week there were 2241 new positive tests (at least those that were reported) but no new hospitalizations. If that's true, it means people are not getting as sick.
Wednesday, June 1, 2022 - Posting on Friday because there were other things to do and the weekly report schedule from the State gives me some slack. But the beautiful weather needs to be appreciated while we have it.
Basically numbers seem a bit better, but also some are suspect. No new deaths from COVID two weeks in a row. I hope that reflects what's happening and not a reporting delay. The new hospitalized number hasn't changed since last week, even as the numbers on the hospital dashboard changed - not a lot, but enough to question the first number. Three more COVID patients in the hospital (49) and three more on vents (4). The number of available ICU almost doubled statewide (from 16 to 30). The number did double in Anchorage, but the numbers are still low (from two to four).
But there were 1759/1775 (first number is subtracting last week's total cases from the new total this week; second number is State's "this week case total.") They've been relatively close. It means that a) having 65% of the population vaccinated is helping keep people from needing hospital care; b) better treatment is helping; c) or reporting is bad. And I'm sure I left out some other possibilities. There were 496 non-resident new cases reported.
And I know I have to still find a chart update option. I'm guessing the old chart has just gotten too big for SCRBD and I need to just keep the old one and start a new one. Stay healthy.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 - Numbers still going the wrong way now.
No new deaths reported. 14 new hospitalizations. Number of people in the hospital with COVID statewide is up two to 46, number of people on vents is still one. Available ICU beds down four statewide to 16 and down one in Anchorage to two.
1903/1911 new resident cases this week. Up from last week (1647/1675). Non-resident new cases = 153.
Still have to figure out how I want to update the chart. I think it's just gotten too big and I'll have to start a new one.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 - Having trouble again loading the updated chart. May have to just start a new chart that won't be such a large file. Numbers going the wrong way. Remember, the numbers are for a week.
17 new resident deaths. Eight new hospitalizations. Three more COVID patients (44) but three fewer on vents (1). 13 fewer available ICU beds (20) statewide and five fewer (3) in Anchorage.
1647/1675 new resident cases. 287 new non-resident cases reported. This number seems high.
Wednesday, May 11, 2022 - (OK, I'm late with this. I was walking the boulder strewn beach of Captain Cook State Park.) I created a new SCRIBD file today and it took the chart. So, the chart should be exactly the same chart, but in a different SCRIBED location.
Last week's death numbers appear to have been a mistake because the total deaths are almost 200 lower today - 1235. That means since the last (apparent) accurate number on April 27, 2022, there have been 16 more deaths (at least reported) in Alaska. The total (since the beginning) hospitalization numbers were also screwy last week - lower than the week before. Today's are still lower than April 27, 2022 at 3754 which is three fewer than two weeks ago.
The generally accurate numbers come from the hospital dashboard. There are eight more people in the hospital in Alaska with COVID (41) and four more (from 0 last week) on vents this week. Statewide the number of available ICU beds dropped three to 36 statewide, but stayed the same (at 8) in Anchorage.
1520/1525 new resident COVID cases reported this week, up about 90 from last week (about 11 more per day.) Again, remember these numbers are only some of the people actually tested, doesn't include people who test at home.) There were 103 new non-resident cases.
As I watch people congregating inside without masks these days, I do worry that a new surge is coming. It's why I don't shut this down. Perhaps people have decided that they are taxed and son't get too sick. And maybe not wearing a mask is worth that risk for most people. We don't know if the deaths reported this week were from vexed or untaxed people. I still mask up inside stores. For me the only hassle of the mask is knocking off a hearing aid when I take it off.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022 - still having trouble updating the table. Has it finally gotten too big for SCRIBD? Or was it updating to Big Sur? Not sure. So the table isn't updating. But here are the new numbers.
221 new deaths reported since last week. Clearly these are a lot of old records finally making it and not how many people died last week. In fact the total hospitalized table is down four to 3753. Actual COVID patients in the hospital is up one, but for the first time in a long time, no one is on a Vent in Alaska. Available ICU beds are up to 36 (from 31) statewide and up to eight (from four) in Anchorage.
There were 1431/1440 new resident cases for the week. That's down slightly from last week. 33 new non-resident cases were reported. I still put on a mask when I'm inside with other people and if in a crowd outside. One thing I've realized - I haven't had a cold or other flu-like illness since the pandemic began. I suspect that's part isolation and part mask-wearing in public.
Wednesday, April 27, 2022 - I updated the software on my laptop and now I'm having trouble updating the table above. But I can share the numbers here. Today is Wednesday, the day the State updates its dashboards, so these are the changes since last Wednesday.
Four new deaths reported. Five new hospitalizations. Total number of COVID patients in the hospital is up 12 to 32. Number on vents is down four (1) statewide. Available ICU beds statewide up two to 31, down two in Anchorage to four.
New resident cases since last week - 1448/1435. New non-resident cases is 48.
Lots of people not wearing masks as I wander around town. In fact those still wearing masks indoors seems to be a very small minority.
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 - 13 more deaths reported this week. That's an increase but may just reflect previous deaths whose records are catching up. Three new hospitalizations. The hospital dashboard reports a drop in statewide COVID patients in hospitals - down from 26 to 20 - but an increase from 2 to 5 in Anchorage. Available ICU beds statewide are down seven to 29, but up four to 6 in Anchorage.
1507/1505 new resident cases reported for the week. 21 non-res cases.
Wednesday, April 13, 2022 - Reports only once a week now, on Wednesdays. I'm adding this a week late. I did update the chart last week, but not the highlights here.
Seven deaths reported. Seven hospitalizations. No change for actual COVID patients in the hospital, one more on vent. 26(2). Available ICU beds statewide down 4 to 22 and in Anchorage the same.
1385/1505 new resident cases. 18 non res cases.
Friday, April 8, 2022 - Saw an announcement that Alaska COVID reports are now down to once a week on Wednesdays.
Wednesday, April 6, 2022 - Seems they were making changes Monday that went into effect today. I've been reporting daily new COVID cases C/T where C = Current Total - Previous Total and T is the Dashboard's current total since yesterday. Often these didn't match when they were posting daily. When that ended, they never matched. Also, the space where I was gathering the data for Test Positivity is no longer reporting the daily number of positive and negative tests.
Beginning April 6, 2022, in accordance with federal reporting requirements, any site performing antigen testing is no longer required to report negative results, and no serologic results are required to be reported. Therefore, we are discontinuing the updating of the Statewide Testing Results tab. Data will remain here as a record of past reporting efforts.
In some ways that's good because the data itself was getting less accurate because certain labs were no longer reporting positive cases, skewing the data for Test Positivity. And now we will only get weekly numbers, it seems. Though I can still approximate daily numbers by subtracting previous total cases from current total cases.
I have been wondering how long I should keep tracking this. We're in a lull - not as low as we were before the serge, but lower than the surge. Is this the end? Or is this a lull? I'm the pessimist and since masks and other protections are now all voluntary, I expect numbers will go back up.
Today, No new deaths reported. One new hospitalization. COVID patients in the hospital is down 9 to 26 and people on vents is steady at 1. Available ICU beds is 22 statewide (down 4) and 6 in Anchorage (no change)
914/441 new resident cases reported. Let's look at those numbers carefully. 914 is the number of cases since they last reported a total, which was Friday. 441 is, apparently a total of the last week. So 914 is for five days, or an average of about 180 new cases a day. Which for seven days would be about 1300 which is a lot more than 441. So either the numbers re cockeyed or I don't understand what they mean.
No more Test Positivity numbers available.
Monday, April 4, 2022 - Is the state taking off the beginning of Ramadan? That's fine with me but they should tell us. No new numbers posted today.
Friday, April 1, 2022 - COVID has vanished on this first day of April. I wish, but in the meantime the numbers seem less and less reliable. Different dashboards have different numbers. The testing numbers collect less info on positives. And this blogger is double checking his addition and subtraction less scrupulously. But this at least continues to offer a way to follow the trend lines as reported by the State M-W-F.
No new deaths - but, again, they seem to be reported on Wednesdays. No new hospitalizations either. But the hospital dashboard paints a different picture. One more statewide COVID patient in the hospital currently (35) but one fewer on vent (1). Available ICU beds statewide are down four to 26, and down one to 6 in Anchorage. I believe ICU bed data is all patients, not just COVID.
517/190 new resident cases. Eleven new non-resident cases.
But the testing numbers show 731 positive tests for yesterday. So take this all with a grain of salt. I'm trying to be as consistent as possible in my reporting, despite the conflicting numbers. Test Positivity is up .1 to 7.6, but again, what gets reported and not reported is questionable. The test dashboard says certain labs don't report negative tests, so my Test Positivity number is probably high.
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 - First numbers since last Friday.
Monday, March 28, 2022 - It's Seward's Day, a state holiday in Alaska, so no new numbers.
Friday, March 25, 2022 - 10 new deaths reported. Nineteen new hospitalizations. Actual COVID patients reported to be in the hospital was down six (from 43 to 37) and from three on vents to just one. Available ICU beds stayed the same statewide at six, but increased by four in Anchorage to 10.
508/310 new resident cases (two days) is higher than Monday's three day number. 63 new non-resident cases reported.
Test Positivity is up from 7.4 to 7.6. This is not a big increase, but the trend is going the wrong way.
Wednesday, March 23, 2022 - No new deaths reported. Only four new hospitalizations. Actual COVID patients reported to be in the hospital was down two (from 37 to 35) and patients on vents went from one to two. But available ICU beds dropped statewide to 28 (from 32) , and from ten to four in Anchorage.
597/312 new resident cases. That's almost 100 more than Wednesday. 16 new non-resident cases reported.
Test Positivity is up to 7.97 from 7.6. The trend continues going the wrong way.
Monday, March 21, 2022 - Inconsistent numbers from Dashboard to Dashboard. But we have been generally gettin Death data on Wednesdays. This week and last new hospitalizations have been zero too. But on the Hospital Dashboard, there are four more people hospitalized statewide and we're hold steady at three people on vents. Number of available ICU beds dropped by one statewide (32) and by one in Anchorage (6).
360/74 new resident cases. That's a three day average of 120 per day. New non resident cases reported as four.
Test Positivity reported as 7.4 - lower than Friday, but higher than it's been lately.
Friday, March 18, 2022 - Key takeaway today: Test Positivity is moving back up.
- March 9 it got down to 6.9.
- March 11 - 7.3
- March 14 - 7.2
- March 16 - 7.2
- March 18 - 8.1
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 - Wednesday (mostly) is the day for posting deaths recently and there was only one death reported. That's good compared to 10 last week, 28 the week before, and 22 the week before that. 10 new hospitalizations reported. COVID patients reported in hospitals are down one (to 37), number of vents remains at three. Available ICU beds statewide is up one (33) and up three in Anchorage (4).
470/224 new resident cases reported since Monday/yesterday. There were six non-res new cases reported.
The total Alaska cases is now 236,471. That means that just under one-third (32%) of Alaskans have tested positive for COVID. Well, not exactly. Some people have tested positive more than once. Some got COVID early on before tests were readily available. And home tests may or may not be reported. On the positive side, it means 2/3 of Alaskans have not gotten COVID. Looking at the vaccine statistics as of today, 35% of Alaskans have not been vaccinated. But I don't know if there's a dashboard that shows the vaccination status of people who have tested positive. Plus the total of positives goes back to before the vaccines were available.
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Monday, March 14, 2022 - Numbers generally still going in the right direction. No new deaths reported, but they've been mainly reported on Wednesdays lately anyway. No new hospitalizations either. Unusual. COVID patients in the hospital statewide dropped by one to 38. Patients on vents unchanged at three. Available ICU beds up statewide (32) by four and in Anchorage (11) by seven. That's all good.
496/79 new resident cases since Friday/since yesterday. That's relatively low, but higher than last Monday slightly. 17 new non-res cases.
Test Positivity just barely moved down from 7.3 to 7.2.
Friday, March 11, 2022 - Mixed. No new deaths reported. 18 new hospitalizations reported. Number of actual patients in the hospital with COVID dropped sharply from 51 to 38, but still maintaining three people on vents. Available ICU beds went up by one statewide (28) but down two in Anchorage to 4.
640/246 new resident cases reported. First number is mine and reflects increase since Wednesday. Second number from the state is one day increase. 15 non-resident cases reported.
For the first time since January 24 when Test Positivity was 25.6, this metric went up from Wednesday's 6.9 to today's 7.3. Hopefully this is an anomaly due to overall low number of tests.
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 - Sorry, I got the numbers onto the chart, but didn't update here. Ten more deaths were reported - Wednesdays is when they seem to report deaths now - and 14 new hospitalizations. There were two fewer COVID patients in the hospital (51) but still 3 on vents. There were more available ICU beds, up two statewide (27) and three in Anchorage (6). But think about this - the hospital personal have to get the dead bodies out and then clean those ICU beds for the next patients.
1491/1252 new resident cases reported since Monday. That's a big increase which suggests higher hospitalizations and deaths in the future if this continues. 15 new non-res cases.
But the Test Positivity levels continues downward to 6.9. But how many people are testing at home and not reporting?
Monday, March 7, 2022 - No new deaths, but they don't seem to get reported until Wednesdays now. The same for hospitalizations - just one reported today. Number of COVID patients in the hospital is only down five and people on vents is up two (from one.) Available ICU beds are down - 25 (from 32 Friday) statewide and to three from seven in Anchorage.
New resident cases are also down - 407/104 - this is a good drop from Friday. Only six non-res new cases reported
Test Positivity continues downward - to 7.95 (from 8.3 on Friday.)
Friday, March 4, 2022 - Almost all the indicators moved in the right direction today. No deaths reported. Six new hospitalizations only. Number of COVID patients reported in the hospital is down four to 58. Only one on a vent (three on Wednesday). Nine more available ICU beds statewide (32) but Anchorage number didn't move. Still seven.
701/302 new resident cases. That's up over 50 per day from the Wednesday number. Only three new non-res cases reported.
Test Positivity went down, but just barely - to 8.3 from 8.4. It was going down faster until today.
Wednesday, March 2, 2022 - Since mid-January there's a new reporting pattern. If you look at the chart, you'll see deaths are now mostly reported on Wednesdays. Today 28 new deaths were reported. That's an average of four per day since last Wednesday. So while people are unmasking, other people are still dying. 24 new hospitalizations were reported. Again, Wednesday seems to get most of the reports on the Cases Dashboard Summary page. But the Hospital Dashboard Page numbers don't move in the same direction. The number of COVID patients in Alaska hospitals dropped from 76 to 62. But the number on Vents remains unchanged - three. Statewide there were three fewer available ICU beds (23), but in Anchorage five more (7).
587/327 new resident cases reported. That comes to about 30 more per day over two days/ over 200 more than the one day report Monday
Test Positivity is again down - from 9.4 Monday to 8.4 today. But remember, these don't count home tests or all the labs.
Monday, February 28, 2022 - No new deaths. Only one new hospitalization reported since Friday. And that's also reflected in the hospital dashboard. Number of COVID patients in the hospital is down eight to 76, but still 3 people on vents. Available ICU beds statewide is up five to 21, but down one to two in Anchorage.
"Only" 797/122 new resident COVID cases since Friday/Sunday. 14 new non-res cases.
And Test Positivity continues down - from 11.0 on Friday to 9.4 today.
I'd note the Alert Level on the Alaska Dashboard is still HIGH.
We had 797 reported in the last 3 days. To get to the orange level we'd need to be down to
With these number it's going to be a while before we are out of the High Alert Level. 100/100,000 comes to .1% - yes one-tenth of a percent. These targets are so low, I'm questioning my own math.
- .1% would be 700 cases or more per week HIGHT
- .05% would be 350 cases - 700 per week SUBSTANTIAL
- .001% would be 70 cases per week MODERATE
- .001% would be under 70 cases per week LOW
Somebody, check my math, these just seem so low, given where we've been and where we are now.
Friday, February 25, 2022 - The numbers are moving in the right direction. Let's hope they accurately reflect what's actually happening.
No new deaths reported since Wednesday. 27 new hospitalizations. Actual COVID patients in the hospital is reported as 84 and 3 on vents. That's a drop of 10 and three. I'd note on the overall Dashboard it says 99 hospitalized. But there usually is a discrepancy between that Dashboard and the hospital Dashboard. I report from the hospital dashboard so that the numbers are more consistent. Just pointing this out. On the other hand, there number of available ICU beds statewide dropped from 23 to 21 and in Anchorage rose from one to three.
862 new resident cases reported. That's the lowest number since Monday Dec. 27, 2021 (a three day total of 883). Numbers started to shoot up after that. 67 non-res cases reported.
Test Positivity is now officially down to 11.0. The lowest it's been since Dec. 29. The number of tests officially reported is down 14,430 over the last three days or less than 5000 a day. Presumably there are many more unreported tests (and results) by people using home tests.
But it does look like the latest surge is mostly past us. Good news. Now we can concentrate on war in Europe.
Wednesday, February 23, 2022 - First updates since last Friday - five days. 22 new deaths reported. Just think about 22 people you know and what it would mean if they all died. That's the kind of exercise one needs to go through to make this more than must abstract numbers. You got five people on your list yet? 21 More people were hospitalized. From last Friday to today we went from 95 (4) to 94 COVID patients in the hospital and (six on vents). Not much improvement at all. We've gone from 22-6 available hospital beds statewide and Anchorage to 23-1.
Since this all started 229,986 Alaska residents have tested positive for COVID - 1749 more since Friday. In raw numbers that would be about 1/3 of all Alaskans have gotten COVID.
Test Positivity continues its slow decline - from 12.8 Friday to 12.2 today. That's been a steady decrease and should be a good predictor of future declines in deaths and hospitalizations. Assuming some new variant doesn't come along.
Monday, February 21, 2022 - It's Presidents' day so no new numbers. Next report should be on Wednesday. Stay healthy.
Friday, February 18, 2022 - Mostly positive changes, but not all. No deaths reported Friday. Just severn new hospitalizations reported. But COVID patients in the hospital are up five to 95 and people on vents are up one to four. If you haven't read about what it's like to be on a vent, you should look it up. It's extremely unpleasant.
1236/542 new resident cases since Wednesday. That's up 300 people over two days. 20 new non-resident cases.
The best news is the continued decline of Test Positivity. It's down .4 to 12.8. While that's continued improvement we also have to view it cautiously since we don't know about all the home testing. Sorry I'm late with this. We're in San Francisco and spending time with the two grandkids here who we haven't seen in person for a couple of years because of COVID. One just turned five and got vaccinated, finally, on her birthday. She said she didn't cry, but that she got a bandaid.
Wednesday, February 16, 2022 - Mixed signals. 21 new deaths were reported today. Seems like catch up. But 1108 Alaskans have been officially reported to have died of COVID. 53 people were reported hospitalized over the last two days, which is odd since only 2 were reported on Monday. And the number of patients in he hospital with COVID went down from 103 to 90 since Monday. And the number of people on vents went down from seven to three. BUT at the same time the number of available ICU beds dropped, statewide, from 29 to 25 and in Anchorage from seven to one! I suspect it's that different data collection sources report differently and get posted on different Dashboards.
New resident cases dropped significantly from 1805 (3 days) Monday to 935 (2 days) today. There were 14 new non-res cases reported.
The best indicator has been Test Positivity which has been steadily dropping. It's down to 13.2. It was up in the mid 20s not long ago. (The highest score I have is 32.5, but that was when they changed how they were reporting and I'm not sure it's right. That was January 19, 2022.
Monday, February 14, 2022 - Today's numbers going in the right direction.
No new deaths. Only two new hospitalizations (though Monday numbers tend to be low). COVID patients in the hospital down two statewide (103) and two fewer on vents (7). We've increased available ICU beds by nine (29) statewide and by one in Anchorage (7).
1805/418 new resident cases. The three day number is lower than Friday's two day number. Same for the one day number.
Test Positivity continues to slide downward - to 16.5, from Friday's 18.6.
Friday, February 11, 2022 - Spotty today. No new deaths reported. 18 hospitalizations since Wednesday. Actual COVID patients in the hospital statewide is down 14 to 105, but patients on vents is up three to nine. Available ICU beds are down nine statewide to 20 and down two in Anchorage to six.
1853/681 new resident positive cases. This is a significant drop from Wednesday's 3494/1081. Non res cases are also much lower, just 14 reported.
Test Positivity continues a slow decline. 18.6 reported today.
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 - The post Omicron surge isn't all downhill. 21 new deaths were reported today - surely some of those are catch-up numbers. 17 more new hospitalizations since Monday (but Monday numbers were lower than last Friday, so who knows how many actual new hospitalizations there were?) Even if you do all your charts right, if you have bad numbers to start with, your charts are flawed. My table above tries to show the same data every time in the hopes that over the long haul you get a reasonably accurate picture. (If not of COVID in Alaska, then how it was tracked in Alaska.) But even I have trouble when they change how they report.
There were eight fewer people hospitalized with COVID (119) but the same number on vents (6). One more available ICU bed Statewide and two more in Anchorage (29-8). But that's small comfort to the friends and relatives of the people who died to increase availability of ICU beds.
Test positivity - or as near as I can calculate it with the new dashboard display - is one slightly to 19.7. It's steadily going down, but at a much slower rate than it shot up.
Mon0ay, February 7, 2022 - It would seem that Omicron's peak is over, but there are still a lot of folks who are testing positive. No new deaths reported since Friday. The total hospitalizations (3477) is lower than it was Friday (3483), which is either a mistake or a correction. It would be nice if they explained such anomalies. Number of COVID patients in Alaska hospitals is down one (127) from Friday, but patients on vents is up by one to six. Available ICU beds statewide dropped by five to 28 statewide and by 11 in Anchorage.
3022/567 new res cases since Friday/since yesterday. 61 non res cases.
Test positivity continues to go down. Now at 20.3, if we can trust the testing numbers.
Friday, February 4, 2022 - Maybe things are getting better. Or maybe the data are getting worse - because, for example, people are self testing. But daily cases seem to have gone down this week and hospitalizations are going down. We're still in a bad place, but maybe it's improving.
No new deaths. Nine new hospitalizations. The cases dashboard said 160 COVID patients currently in the hospital, but the Hospital Dashboard where I regularly get this data says 128 (4). That's 23 fewer in the hospital and one fewer on vents. And available ICU beds are up 5 statewide (33) and up 12 in Anchorage (17). All good signs.
3,760/1566 new resident cases, but the numbers are the lowest in a week. 65 new non-res cases
I couldn't find the chart I've been getting the numbers to calculate the Test Positivity numbers. It was a graph with daily breakdowns of positive and negative tests. Now the seem to be in weekly chunks. This one had a 2/2 date which would have been Wednesday. The number came out to 21.2 which is more or less in line with the other declines so it looks reasonable.
Wednesday, February 2, 2022 - Eight more deaths. Mothers, fathers probably, we don't ever get names like we would if they were killed in a car crash or a murder. Real people who leave behind more real people. 24 new hospitalizations. The cases dashboard also says 184 are hospitalized. Though this number is not consistent with the hospital dashboard which shows a statewide (151) and vent (5) dip of three. Available ICU beds down statewide by three (28) and no change in Anchorage (5).
4042 new resident cases. 96 new non-res cases.
Test positivity down, but still high, at 22.6.
Monday, January 31, 2022 - No new deaths. Only three new hospitalizations reported, but that seems low. Two fewer COVID patients reported in the hospital (154), but one more on a vent (8). One fewer ICU bed available statewide (32) and (4) fewer in Anchorage.
4323/639 cases over three days/one day. Which is why the hospital count seems low. Also 220 non res positives.
Test Positivity still at 24.1. One of the highest in the nation.
Friday, January 28, 2022 - Four more deaths reported for the last two days. 17 new hospitalizations. The hospital dashboard says there are 156 (7) COVID patients in the hospital (seven on vents.) Though the general cases dashboard says there are 190 COVID patients in the hospital. Wednesday the numbers were 129 (4).
5679/2903 new resident cases since Wednesday/since yesterday. 203 new non-res cases. Both are among the highest two day numbers ever.
24.9 percent of those testing positive (and reported on the testing dashboard) tested positive.
Wednesday, January 26, 2022 - Well, except for the nine more people reported dead today on top of the 21 new deaths reported Monday and their families, everything looking great, right? Oh, and the 30 more people hospitalized. Tho the hospital dashboard shows three fewer people in the hospital statewide (129) and eight more available ICU beds statewide (38) and five more in Anchorage (11). I guess when a lot of people die, it frees up beds. I don't mean to sound cold, but when so many people buy into the anti-vax propaganda you can't help but feel bitter. Stupidity is killing people and endangering others who are at risk and trying to stay safe, but have to live in a world full of anti-vaxers and anti-maskers.
There were 5378/2566 new cases resident since Wednesday/since yesterday. 138 new non-res cases.
Test numbers are harder to track now, especially with some labs not reporting and with people testing at home. But the percentage of people testing positive from the state's chart are 25.6% of the reported tests.
Monday, January 24, 2022 - 21 more people reported dead. Surely this includes people from the last few weeks, not just this weekend. Total Alaskans dead now is reported as 1039. Seven more hospitalizations. Current COVID patients in the hospital reported at 132 statewide (up five) and six on vents (up one.) Number of available ICU beds statewide the same at 30 and up one in Anchorage to six.
5564/1081 resident new cases since Friday. Down a bit from previous high reported Friday. There were 107 non resident cases.
Tests are being reported weekly on a chart that I have to unpack and calculate. I didn't do total weekly tests, but the Test Positivity (positive tests over total tests) is 25.6. That's one in four.
Friday, January 21, 2022 - The numbers aren't encouraging. There were no deaths, but we had a packet of delayed deaths reported Wednesday - 23. Twenty new hospitalizations reported on the cases dashboard, but the hospitalization dashboard increased by 27 (to 127) while the number of people on vents stayed the same - five. Available ICU beds statewide dropped by eight to 30 and by 10 in Anchorage to 5.
Record numbers of new cases - 9956/2673 for two days/for one day.
About 38,000 tests (adding the positive and negative results from this chart) and then using those numbers to calculate a test positivity number of 35.3. That's the highest number ever, and that's based on a large number of tests. But these number are hard to compare because people are also doing lots of home testing which don't get reported in many (most?) cases.
We still make all airline passengers go through elaborate screening to get on an airplane, even though there haven't been any plane terrorist deaths in years. But we think the expense and hassle are worth it. But people can't wear masks while thousands of people are dying of COVID. But then bombs in airplanes are much easier to understand than invisible viruses in people's lungs. Until the lungs stop working. Curious about the overlap between anti-abortion folks and anti-vcx, anti-mask folks? Pro-life from the overlaps of those two groups really is a vote to control women.
Wednesday, January 19, 2022 - Monday was a holiday, so these are the first numbers since last Friday. 23 new deaths - presumably some of these are catchup numbers. 36 new hospitalizations. Current COVID patients in the hospital: 100 (5) the total is up 13 and the (vent) number is the same. But available ICU beds is up 14 to 38 statewide and eight to 15 in Anchorage.
9956/2673 new resident cases over the five days for an average of 1991 per day - lower than the state's total for yesterday. I found the non-resident new case number - the total is 6525 that's almost 400 since my last had it.
Total test numbers I can't find, but I could calculate the percent of positive tests - but I realize as I write I did it wrong and the redistricting pre hearing is on in a minute. So I'll fix this later.
Friday, January 14, 2022 - All the new or revised dashboards make it hard to find everything for the chart. Numbers are good. Actually they're terrible.
Two new deaths. 27 new hospitalizations. Hospital dashboard 87 (5) - 87 currently in hospital with COVID and five on vent. That's seven more in the hospital than two days ago, and one more on a vent.
Are you sitting down? 5321/2512 new resident cases. Mine is the number since Wednesday, the 2512 is the presumed one day total, by the State, This is another high.
I can't find the test data again. It was on one of many pages I went through on Wednesday and I can't find it for today.
Let's hope they're right - Omicron spreads much faster, but isn't as potent and lethal. Yet, there are still people sitting around their dining room table sure that they are ok, but will be dead this year from COVID.
I'd note on the other part of the blog I posted yesterday about our flight back to Anchorage and the non-maskers on it.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022 - Lots of Dashboard changes. The old Testing Dashboard is gone.
The link to the new testing dashboard is a graph with positive and negative tests. No actual Test Positivity number. It has this explanation:
"Includes both antigen and molecular test types. Does not include antibody test types, or any at-home tests.
Beginning January 10, CLIA waived test sites are no longer required to report negative test results in accordance with state reporting requirements. Therefore, testing from CLIA waived sites are no longer included in this data after January 10th, 2022. Click here to find out more about the reporting guidance for CLIA Status.
Graph can be filtered by selecting testing results categories at the bottom of the page."
Which I interpret as "we are collecting some data, but not other data, so this really isn't comparative to anything we've done before." And the chart theoretically allows you to calculate your own test positivity score, but it doesn't include all the data. And this assumes the numbers in the past were accurate. The consequence is that we no longer have a Test Positivity number that is comparable to what we had before. And it effectively hides an important indicator from view. Am I certain about these conclusions? Not really. I'm just filling in what's between the lines. And this happened as that number was shooting up to record high numbers.
That said, the numbers we have aren't great. Five new deaths. 21 new hospitalizations. But the number of people listed as actually in the hospital with COVD is only up one to 80 and down six for people on vents. That's down 15. On the other hand available ICU beds statewide is down sharply to 27 (from 54) and down from 20 to six in Anchorage.
New resident cases? Sit down. 4,382/2414 for the two days. My number is since Monday, the state's number is, presumably, since yesterday. Some of the biggest numbers ever. My quick review of the chart says these are the highest numbers (even figuring these are for two days, not three or one.) We are in a different place than in the past. The majority (61%) are fully vaccinated and indications are that Omicron is less lethal. But five more people did die of COVID and others have long COVID.
I've also found where non-resident numbers are kept. We have a total of 6121 non-resident cases. The last number I saw was on December 29 when the total was 5586. So that's 535 over two weeks.
Testing numbers? Don't know. Those might stay blank a while. Not sure the numbers we get really mean that much now.
Monday, January 10, 2022 - I held up posting today to see if the Testing Dashboard would be updated. It hasn't been, but it's 4pm Anchorage time so I'm just going to put this up now.
How are we doing. No new deaths. Seven new hospitalizations reported on the cases dashboard. But there are 10 more people in the hospital with COVID (79) than Friday. The same number of vents (21). One more available ICU bed statewide (70) and two fewer in Anchorage (20).
Where Omicron really shows is new cases - 3091/776. The first number is how many more since the Friday report (an average of 1033 per day). The second number is what the State reports since yesterday.
So why don't we have the test numbers updated? Because we are now in the 20s in Test Positivity? I don't know.
Friday, January 7, 2022 - Omicron appears to have found its way to Alaska.
One new death reported today. Two new hospitalizations since Wednesday. While Omicron is less dangerous, this number seems low. Particularly since the hospital dashboard reports 13 new current COVID patients (69) and no drop in people on vents (21). There are five more available ICU beds statewide (from 48 to 53) and three more in Anchorage (from 19 to 21).
BUT 3,565/1750 new cases were reported in the last two days. That's the highest number ever. Sept 27 was 3,863/1575 for three days. Test Positiivity was 9.16. Two weeks later the Anchorage Assembly added a mask mandate again and number went down significantly - down to 200-300 per day. By Monday, December 6, 2021 there were 463 cases for three days (121/day) and test positivity was down to 4.84. The next day the Assembly lifted the mask mandate. By December 29 they numbers were back to 940(for two days) and Test Positivity jumped up to 7.58. Nine days later we're at 3,565/1750 cases for two days and 18.35 Test Positivity.
And there were a lot of tests - about 20,400 in two days. And as I've said, Test Positivity is at a new all time high of 18.35.
Omicron is more contagious, but if we hadn't lifted the mask mandate (and if most people followed it) we would have lower numbers.
Wednesday, January 5, 2022 - Test Positivity continues on its fastest increase ever. Monday it was 12.78. Today it's 14.78! Once again the highest ever in Alaska. And with testing sites hard to find - Bronson tweeted the Matsu based contractor had trouble getting to Anchorage in the storms - it's hard to know what these numbers mean. Are they up because more symptomatic folks are testing? What about home tests? How do they fit in?
No new deaths. Twelve more people hospitalized. These numbers are all since Monday, since we only get them M-W-F. Actual COVID patients in the hospital is up one to 56, but people on vents is down 11 to 21. Available ICU beds statewide are down 12 - both statewide and in Anchorage to 48-19.
1502/886 new cases. The first number is for two days and the second, from the state, is presumably for one day. Still can't find non-res data on new dashboards. Maybe they ditched it.
11,251 test reported and as mentioned above a new high Test Positivity - 14.67. Let's hope that this is just because of Omicron and that most people will have milder cases.
Monday, January 3, 2022 - First numbers since Wednesday, December 29. Also newly tweaked dashboards. Biggest Indicator: Test Positivity is up to 12.78. The highest we've been before was 10.97 on October 19, 2021, which we got to gradually. The numbers the last two weeks are:
- Dec
- 17 - 3.44
- 19 -3.55
- 20 - 3.64
- 21 - 4.1
- 22 - 4.65
- 23 - 5.19
- 24 - 5.57
- 25 -5.67
- 26 - 6.12
- 27 -7.95
- 28 - 9.45
- 29 - 10.68
- 30 - 11.68
- 31 - 12.23
- Jan
- 1 - 12.36
- 3. - 12,78
[UPDATED January 3, 2022, 7:30 pm:Mayor Bronson put a link to free testing sites in Anchorage in a Tweet today.]
Friday, December 31, 2021 - New Year's Eve is apparently a good reason not to update the COVID dashboards. Wouldn't want to discourage people from celebrating New Year's Eve. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not sure 2022 is going to be the relief we need.
Wednesday, December 29, 2021 - It's starting back. A week ago the Test Positivity was 3.58. Monday, they next time there was an update, the Test Positivity was 4.89. Today it's 7.58. That's a big jump. Also, number of cases jumped - 940/469, that is 940 for the two days, 469 is the state's number since yesterday. We'd gotten down to the 100s per day, and now back into the mid 400s.
Also, two new deaths reported. Two new hospitalizations reported The currently in the hospital number is 52 (down five) and 10 on vents (down four.) But available ICU beds are down - five statewide and three in Anchorage.
About 13,500 tests reported since Monday, and as mentioned above, Test Positivity jumped almost three points to 7.58. NOTE: Test Positivity is on a seven day average, so the most recent numbers much be higher to bring the average up to 7.58. Expect higher Friday was the two low numbers from last week drop off.
Monday, December 27, 2021 - These are the first numbers since last Wednesday. Given these are numbers over a Christmas weekend, I suspect the reports might be behind what's really happened.
No new deaths reported. Only one new hospitalization. (See what I mean - five days and only one hospitalization? Either the numbers are slow getting in or people put off going to the hospital, or both.) The numbers from the hospital dashboard - usually more current - reflect one less patient since Wednesday, but three more on vents - 57 (14). The number of available ICU beds is up about a third statewide (by 11 to 46) and in Anchorage by four to 15).
828/89 new resident cases since Wednesday. The 89 is the state number for cases since yesterday. [If the state goes to weekly updates, will they continue to just say how many new cases since yesterday or will they do like I do and spell out how many since the last report?] 55 new non-resident cases.
Fewer than 17,000 tests over five days. Test Positivity is up sharply to 4.89 (from 3.58 Wednesday).
Part of me understands the State wanting to move to weekly updates. I don't know exactly how they update the Dashboards, but it probably would take less work to do. But it also seems that the data bases have to be updated daily, so I don't understand how much extra work the Dashboards are, if any. (It could be programmed to do it automatically, I would assume.) With Omicrom here and who know what on the horizon, this doesn't seem like the time to do this.
But with people self testing, the meaning of the numbers is less clear than before. The numbers never caught everyone. In the beginning only really sick people got tested so we don't know how many people had COVID but were never tested. And now with people self testing, there will be a lot of unreported tests - both positive and negative. With fewer negative tests being reported (my family hasn't reported any of the home tests results) it's more likely that positives will be reported and Test Positivity will be higher. Is that clear? If people test at home and don't report the negative tests, but do report positive tests - particularly if they get sicker - then the percent of reported positive results will be higher than it should be as a percent of all tests taken. But the numbers were never all that accurate because unsympathetic folks didn't get tested unless they were required to test for work or travel.
But part of me thinks keeping as consistent set of numbers going as possible is a good thing for researchers who will be looking at changes in real time and those looking back sometime in the future.
Friday, December 24, 2021 - There were no updates today. Have they switched to weekly reports only already or is is just that people were off for Christmas Eve. I'm guessing the latter.
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 - The State is talking about moving to weekly rather than three times a week reporting, but there are new data today.
There was a bunch of, presumably, old death and hospitalization numbers today. 30 new deaths, 44 new hospitalizations. The hospitalization numbers are not reflected in the hospital dashboard which shows a drop of nine from yesterday, but the same number on vents - 56 (11). There was a small increase in available ICU beds up three statewide and one in Anchorage to 35-11.
224/111 new resident cases. First number is my calculation based on subtracting Monday's number from today's. Second number is State's number, which I assume is from yesterday. Which is almost half of 224. Eight new non-res cases.
About 9,200 tests and Test Positivity is up again to 3.58 (from 3.41).
Stay safe. Yes, reports are confusing about Omicron, but science works by building up more and more certainty over time as more data confirms or doesn't what we knew last week.
Monday, December 20, 2021 - No new deaths. No new hospitalizations. That number is surely not good, because the hospital dashboard shows three more people (65 (11)) in the hospital with COVID (and one more on a vent) than Friday (62 (10)). There five more available ICU beds state wide (32) but one fewer in Anchorage (10).
418/149 new resident cases over the weekend. That would be an average of 139 per day, so the State's 149 since yesterday is in the ballpark. Five new non-res cases.
Under 13,000 tests. Test Positivity is up slightly to 3.41 (from 3.25 Friday.) I'd note that Trump said he got his booster. Maybe that will help people get their shots. Alaska is 60% fully vaccinated, but that just means two shots. In the Aleutians East Borough 86% are fully vaccinated. In SE Fairbanks the number is 35% - lowest in the state.
Friday, December 17, 2021 - A backlog of deaths showed up today. 56 new deaths were added to get us to a total of 915. Most of these, I presume are catch-up reports as data come in and then get added. 43 new hospitalizations. That's a high number for a while, but it's tricky tracking because the state is now only reporting M-W-F.
401/151 new cases. 401 is for two days, State's number is (presumably) only for one. Six new non-resident cases.
14,070 tests. The good news is that Test Positivity is down to 3.25. We haven't been that low since July 14, 2021. But I wonder how that number would be affected by all the people doing home testing.
Hospitalizations down slightly from Wednesday to 62 (10 with 27 available ICU beds statewide and 11 in Anchorage.
Thursday, December 16 - No Alaska updates today - just Monday, Wednesday, and Friday now it seems - but I wanted to share this COVID concern from the NYTimes. Which is why I'm not happy about lifting the mask mandate in Anchorage. If you're going out, be fully vaccinated and masked when around people, particularly inside.
In Britain, new cases also hit a record yesterday. In the U.S., Omicron has not yet spread as widely, but scientists believe it’s only a matter of time. |
One reason that Omicron seems to spread so quickly is that it causes more cases among the vaccinated than earlier variants, although they are likely to be mild. “There will be a lot of breakthrough cases,” Dr. Jennifer Lighter, an epidemiologist at N.Y.U. Langone Health, told me. |
Dr. Muge Cevik, an infectious-disease expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, noted on Twitter that much about Omicron remains uncertain, but its infectiousness seems clear: |
The only thing I am sure of is that Omicron will spread so quickly through the population, making it likely impossible to contain even with the most stringent measures and giving us very little time over the next few weeks. So get your vaccines and boosters! |
This is from n emaila newsletter that I don't know if there is a way to link to it.
She's saying she doesn't think it will be contained at this point because it has spread so far and there are so many people who haven't been vaccinated. But it doesn't mean being careful and wearing a mask won't improve your odds.
Wednesday, December 15, 2021 - Numbers all going in wrong direction today. Remember Alaska is only posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday now. So the totals are for two days, and three on Mondays.
Two new deaths. 12 new hospitalizations. Actual COVID patients in the hospital have been going down. Today they're up six Statewide and four on vents - 69 (10) and available ICU beds are down statewide and in Anchorage to 22-2.
385/282 new resident cases. 385 over two days is just under 200 per day, but the State's number is usually for one day. We'd been slowly but steadily going down. That seems to have ended. There were five new non-res cases.
Almost 13,000 tests over the two days. Test Positivity up slightly to 3.61.
Monday, December 13, 2021 - Not sure what distracted me last Wednesday and Friday. I updated the charts, but didn't get to here. Basically we're going in the right direction. While we added a death in today's reports, the front end numbers - number of new cases and especially Test Positivity are going down.
One new death. Five new hospitalizations. Number of people in the hospital with COVID and on vents continues to decline 63 (6) compared to Friday's 79 (10). Still only 23 available ICU beds in Alaska, but four more (6) in Anchorage.
405/57 new resident cases since Friday. That's an average of about 134 a day. The State's number suggests on 57 since yesterday. Five new non resident cases.
About 13,600 tests over the weekend. Best news is that Test Positivity is now below 4.0, to 3.57.
All these declines began to show up a week or so after the Assembly passed the mask mandate. They lifted the mandate Tuesday Dec. 7. Let's see if we start going back up in the next week or two.
Only 59.7% of Alaskans are fully vaccinated. 66.8% have had one vaccine. If they all follow up in the next few weeks with their second shots, we'll still be short of 85-90% fully vaccinated. Only 18% have had boosters. So there are still lots of people walking around who are possible carriers and spreaders.
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 - I couldn't find any updates today. The Dashboards all had the same numbers as yesterday, except hospitalizations went from yesterday's 3119 back to Friday's 3117.
Monday, December 6, 2021 - Numbers were reasonably good on Friday and that continued with the numbers posted today. Friday was the first day since November 22 with no deaths. That continued through the weekend, though the State's been known to then put up a bunch of previously unreported deaths. But let's hope this is accurate. No new hospitalizations reported over the weekend (probably a reporting error) and 19 reported Friday. In the hospital COVID patients reported Friday 71(10) was the same as Thursday for statewide, but up three for COVID patients in the hospital in Anchorage . Today it's up in both categories to 77 (12). Available ICU beds dipped one statewide on Friday to 22 but went up three in Anchorage to seven. Today, both are down - 21-4.
455/196 new resident cases today. The 439 is for three days which makes a 149 per day average, which is lower than the State reports since Sunday. Friday it was 311/312. So it's moving in the right direction. Six Non-res new cases Friday and eight over the weekend.
Just under 12,000 tests reported since Friday when there were 6,000 reported. While Test Positivity was up a smidgen Friday to 5.28, today it's below 5.0 for the first time since July 14, 2021. That's a big deal.
Friday, December 3, 2021 - Looks like I forgot to comment on Friday. The Film Festival began. That's my excuse. But the numbers were in the chart. I'll comment for both days Monday.
Thursday, December 2, 2021 - Two more deaths. Note - these are just letters and numbers on a page. They're people who were alive the other day and now are dead, leaving families and friends to mourn. 15 more people are in the hospital and they and their families are wondering if they will get better or add to the 853 people who have died. And if they are unvaccinated, the chance of death is much higher. But if you're reading this, you probably already know that. Meanwhile there is a little more room in Alaska hospitals - 71(7), compared to yesterday's 76 in the hospital with COVID and 13 on vents. Two more available ICU beds statewide (the two deaths?) and no change in Anchorage, just five.
342/347 new resident cases. More than yesterday. Only two non read new cases.
About 8600 tests. Test Positivity down slightly to 5.23 from 5.27. That's the best number today. I wonder how private at home testing messes up that stats. I know when we tested with a home kit a couple of weeks ago after our plane trip, we didn't report to anyone - well not officially. I did mention it on the blog here.
Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - Yes, it's December already. Today's number look more negative than positive. One new death. 29 new hospitalizations. That's up from the last few days. COVID patients in the hospital is mixed - total number is down six, those on vents is up four (76 (13). Available ICU beds are down - Three statewide to 21 and five in Anchorage to five.
327 new resident cases. A big jump from yesterday's 187. Non-re new cases is three.
About 8,300 tests. And Test Positivity is down to 5.27. That's the lowest since July 28! A good sign.
Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - Two more deaths. Four more go into the hospital. After a steady decline in COVID patients in the hospital, we've bumped up to 82 (9) Statewide (Anchorage). But we have two more available ICU beds statewide and five more in Anchorage 24-10.
183/179 new resident cases. It's good to be back under 200. Four new non-res.
About 5200 tests. Test Positivity dipped slightly to 5.64.
Monday, November 29, 2021 - Both positive and negative numbers. These are for Fri, Sat, and Sunday. One new death reported. Eleven new hospitalizations. Actual COVID patients in the hospital continues to decline - 79 (5) - Alaska (Anchorage.) Friday was 87 (8). Last Monday was 112 (13). So that's good.
706/107 new resident cases. Over three days that averages about 232/day. Not going down fast enough for me. 17 new non-resident cases.
About 9500 cases over three days. Not very many and the Test Positivity reflects that, moving up yet again to 5.89. There had been a steady decline from the 10s in mid-October, down to 5.45 last Wednesday. This was a great sign. Let's hope this return upward is just a tick.
I'd recommend caution regarding Omicron. Read the reports with the knowledge that we're just gathering data right now and we don't know if this is going to put the world back in lockdown or if the current vaccines will keep most infected people from dying. Just keep your masks on indoors in public and outdoors if you're really close to others. Find ways to appreciate life that you can afford.
Friday, November 26, 2021 - Yesterday was a holiday so no numbers and today's are for two days.
Seven new deaths reported. Ten new hospitalizations. The hospital situation is getting better. Today there are seven fewer (87) COVID patients and three fewer on vents (8). But there is one less available ICU bed statewide (21) and one more available in Anchorage (5).
619/138 new resident cases - My number (today's total cases - previous total cases) is for two days. The state's number (138) is for just one day. 310 would be the two day average, down from Wednesday, but way above Tuesday's 144. Seven non-res cases.
Almost 14,000 tests over the two days. Test Positivity up slightly to 5.69
With a new variant on the horizon, we could be back in lockdown before long. Hope it proves not too nasty.
Wednesday, November 24, 2021 - Six more deaths reported. 13 new hospitalizations. Current COVID patients in the hospital continues to decline, 94 today compared to 102 yesterday (11 on vents compared to 14 Tuesday.
475/476 new resident cases reported. It's good to see my number and the State's number so close together, but disturbing that the number is 300 more than yesterday's. 12 new non-res cases.
Just over 10,000 tests. The only good news is that Test Positivity is down again - to 5.45.
Let's hope we don't see a resurgence after everyone gets together for Thanksgiving.
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 - Two new deaths.19 new hospitalizations. (Which makes me wonder about the accuracy of yesterday's single hospitalization. Or maybe it's just that people don't go to the hospital on the weekends. Or the data don't get processed thoroughly on the weekends.) Current COVID patients in the hospital dropped by ten to 102 with one more on vents (14). 23 available ICU beds statewide is the same as yesterday, two more available than yesterday in Anchorage - five.
144/157 new resident cases. That's the lowest since the first weeks of Bronson's mayorship in early July. Numbers were below 100 regularly before he took over. By September and October we were having over 1000 new cases a day. There were 1224 cases on October 13 when the mayor vetoed the mask mandate and 980 the next day when the Assembly overrode his veto. Now, with over a month of mask mandate, we're done to 144 new cases today. I can't help but believe the mask mandate was a key factor. At the very least it's played a role in cutting back on the number of new daily cases.
About 5400 tests and Test Positivity is down again, slightly, to 5.75.
Monday, November 22, 2021 - Numbers looking good today. Is it because it's Monday and they're backlogged from the weekend, or are things really improving. Probably the best indicator of the later is the Test Positivity score of 5.8, the first time we've been under 6 since July 30! This number tells us the percent of people being tested who are positive. It's supposed to be a good predictor of the future. And it's been steadily going down for a while now.
No new deaths reported today. Only one new hospitalization. Patients currently in the hospital with COVID is down to 112 from Friday's 134 - a significant drop. People on vents went from 18 to 13. Available ICU beds statewide didn't change - 23 and Anchorage dropped two to 3.
737/157 new resident cases. That's about 245 per day, much higher than the State's 157 since Sunday. There were seven non-resident new cases reported.
Three were 15,000 tests, or 5000 per day average. And as I said above, the Test Positivity is down to 5.81
Friday, November 19, 2021 - Not nearly out of the woods yet. 20 more deaths reported - I assume this is mostly catching up with older stats. But 30 new people reported hospitalized. Number of COVID patients in the hospital down three to 134, but people on vents unchanged at 18. Available hospital beds statewide dropped four to 23 and in Anchorage down two to five.
514/517 new resident cases reported. Glad to see my number and the state's number are a little closer together today. Nine new non-res cases.
About 8900 tests. Test Positivity down slightly to 6.64.
Thursday, November 18, 2021 - Zero new deaths. Nine new hospitalizations. 137 COVID patients in the hospital, one less than yesterday, but the same number of people on vents - 18. Available ICU beds up slightly statewide (from 22 to 27), but Anchorage remains the same at seven.
New resident cases are moving back up - 517/442 compared to yesterday's 437/423. Eight new non-res cases.
Just about 8100 tests. Test Positivity up slightly to 6.71.
Wednesday, November 17, 2021 - Backsliding today. Two more people died of COVID. 37 more hospitalized - that's a jump from yesterday's 20 and the highest since October 6's 39. But actual patients in the hospital went down slightly - 143 yesterday to 139 today. And 20 on vents yesterday to 18 today. But available ICU beds slipped to 22-7.
437/423 new resident cases is a jump of almost 100 since yesterday. Five new non-res.
9600 tests and - the best news - Test Positivity continues to slide down. 6.68. We're still well above target level of under 2.0, but we're moving in the right direction.
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - Seven more deaths. Twenty more hospitalizations. 143(20) currently in the hospital with COVID (on vents). Available ICU beds statewide 30, Anchorage 8.
345/356 new resident cases, slightly less than yesterday. Six non-res cases.
About 5800 tests, which is low and so the lower Test Positivity of 6.85 means even more.
Monday, November 15, 2021 - Better, but still a ways to go. Two deaths reported over the weekend. 25 new hospitalizations. Currently hospitalized (on vent) - 146(19). That's a jump from Friday when it was 124 (23).
1069/311 - 1069 is 3 days - so about 356 per day new resident cases. Eleven new non-res.
About 15,700 tests. Test Positivity (6.92) under 7 for first time since Sept. 3, 2021.
It's been just over a month since the Assembly passed the Mask Mandate (Oct. 13) and it looks like it's making a difference. Here are some key numbers:
| New Cases Reported | Currently in Hospital |
Test Positivity | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 13 -Mask Mandate passed in Anchorage |
1206/1220 | 204 (26 on vent) | 10.97 |
| Nov. 15 (just over one month later |
1069/311 3 day average= 356 |
148(19) | 6.92 |
Friday, November 12, 2021 - More good than bad. For the first time since Oct 13 - just about a month - no deaths were reported. That day there was a total of 590 deaths. Today that total is 801, 211 deaths in a month - or an average of seven a day! But we don't know that for sure for some days we got much larger numbers that reflected catching up with the data rather than actual, that day, deaths. But our mayor and our governor are personally responsible for many, if not most of these deaths because of their promotion of anti-science.
There were only three new hospitalizations. Actual COVID patients in the hospital are down six to 124, but people on vents is up one to 23. We added four available ICU beds statewide and five in Anchorage - 30-12.
852/530 new resident cases reported. The first number is for two days. The second, the state's is presumably for one day. 852 over two days would be 426 per day, lower than Wednesday's number. Fifteen new non-resident cases.
About 17,500 tests. Test Positivity continues going down - to 7.11 this time. A very good sign.
Thursday, November 11, 2021 - It was Veterans Day. No new numbers.
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - Not better today. Nine more deaths reported. Eight more hospitalizations. But COVID patients in the hospital now is one lower, but one more vent at 130 (22).
448/501 new resident cases is up. Non-res new cases is ok at four.
About 8500 tests. Test Positivity is the same as yesterday at 7.71.
That's it.
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - Some good, but mostly not, numbers.
28 more deaths were added to the total. Surely these include mostly past deaths that hadn't gotten into the total earlier. 23 new hospitalizations. Number of current COVID patients in the hospital is up slightly 131 (20) (on vents).
374/386 new resident cases. That's the best number today. Only one new non-res case.
About 4800 tests - a low number - and Test Positivity up slightly to 7.69, which isn't too bad considering how few tests there were.
Monday, November 8, 2021 - New cases and current COVID patients in the hospital are going down. But other numbers still an issue.
50 new deaths reported. This clearly is catching up with old death certificates. But, still, it's troubling. New hospitalizations over the weekend =19. But current COVID patients in hospitals is down from 150(25) to 128(18) (on vents). But available ICU beds is barely changed at 28-8 (statewide and Anchorage.)
1339/300 new resident cases reported over the weekend. That's a 440 per day average. That's a lower daily number than we've been seeing. There were 16 non resident cases.
About 18,600 tests and Test Positivity back below 8.0 at 7.6. That's an encouraging number. The lowest since September 2.
Friday, November 5, 2021 - One more death, 14 new hospitalizations reported. Current COVID patients in the hospital down 9, but on vent is up two 150(25). Two more ICU beds available statewide, but no change in Anchorage 26-8.
856/860 new resident cases. Ten new non-res cases.
About 11,800 tests. Test Positivity back up above 8.0 - at 8.08.
Thursday, November 4, 2021 - Biggest two numbers today are 159(23) COVID patients in the hospital (23 on vents) a big drop from yesterday's 183(29). And Test Positivity is at 7.96, the first time under 8.0 since September 3 when it was 6.91.
Two new deaths reported. Seven new hospitalizations.
671/645 new resident cases. Ten new non-resident cases.
And there were just over 11,500 tests.
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 - Three more deaths. 20 more hospitalizations. COVID patients currently in the hospital 183(29 on vent). Available ICU beds 26 statewide six in Anchorage.
667/660 new resident cases - up 176 from yesterday. Nine new non-res cases.
About 10,500 tests. Test Positivity is down to 8.17. That's probably the best number today. We haven't been that low since Sept 8, 2021.
Tuesday, November 2, 2021- Generally positive movement of numbers. However, six more deaths reported. These just keep rolling in, a handful a day, adding up - 30 since last Tuesday. But deaths are the last numbers to improve. Then hospitalizations. Only seven more people hospitalized. Actual COVID patients in the hospital dropped again from yesterday's reported 190 (28) to 184 (27). (on ventilators.) Available ICU beds up slightly to 25 statewide and six in Anchorage.
New resident cases total 491/494. Getting better. Last time we were under 500 was October 19. Non-resident new cases = five. When cases go down, then hospitalizations and deaths follow, a bit later.
There were 8500 tests. Test Positivity inched up to 8.66.
Monday, November 1, 2021 - Things are looking up as we begin November. Still have people dying, but other numbers are an improvement.
Three new deaths (total of 702) over the weekend. 16 new hospitalizations since Friday. A drop in COVID patients in the hospital - from 220(33) (on vents) to 190(28). But available ICU beds are still tight at 22-4 (statewide - Anchorage).
Just under 18,000 tests over the weekend. Test Positivity at 8.53 is the lowest since September 8, 2021. It's still not great, but we seem to be trending down rather than up.
Friday, October 27, 2021 - Whoa! I got my booster on Monday and both Wednesday and Thursday I was very tired, plus my old heel problem hobbled me, but I know I tracked the numbers. But I apparently didn't add them in here. Sorry. But the chart got updated. So let's catch up.
Wed added two deaths, Thursday, three, and today 4. A total of 31 people died since last Friday!
Wed was a hospitalization high point - 236(33). The numbers dropped Thursday to 221 (30) and mixed today 220(33). 220 in hospital with COVID (33 on vents). Available ICU beds were up and down - 24-8 Wed, 17-4 Thursday, and 20-4 today. That's Alaska-Anchorage.
The daily new resident cases were 574 Wed, 792 Thursday, and 797 today. Not really going down steadily.
The Test Positivity got below 9.0 Wed and Thursday (8.8 and 8.85), but today is back to 9.17.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021 - Not any really good numbers today.
10 new deaths reported. 39 new hospitalizations. Close to record number of COVID patients in the hospital - 234 and 37 on ventilators. Available ICU beds up slightly to 22 statewide/6 Anchorage.
742/749 new resident cases. These should be lower if new mandates are working. Only two new non-resident cases reported.
My booster reaction was mostly a fever. It was a painful heel that really distracted me. Reaction is over and heel is nearly better. Have a good weekend.
Just shy of 8,000 tests. Test Positivity back up to 9.32.
Monday, October 25, 2021 - The front end numbers (new cases, test positivity) seem to be improving. The back end numbers (people in hospital and deaths) aren't yet. So maybe the mask mandate is starting to slow down the spread. Maybe. We need more time to see.
Five more deaths. 4 new hospitalizations. 229 COVID patients currently in the hospital statewide and 34 on vents. Those numbers are up. Available ICU beds are down to 16 statewide and one in Anchorage.
1656/351 new cases since Friday. The big number is for three days and shows an average of about 550 per day, which is higher than the one day number the state gives.
Almost 19,000 tests. Test Positivity is down again, to 9.21.
Friday, October 22, 2021 - There's good and bad. Best - Test Positivity fell below 10 (to 9.89) for the first time in two weeks. There were about 10,900 tests.
The number of new resident cases is down from yesterday, but still it's 834/861. 14 new non-res cases.
Sixteen more people were hospitalized, though total COVID patients in the hospital went down from 235 (the highest ever) to 225 (still high). Number of people on vents was up two to 32. But Available ICU beds was up to 20 statewide and to 11 in Anchorage.
But that could be, in part, due to five new deaths. We'll know by the end of next week if the Anchorage mask mandate is having an impact. Maybe.
Thursday, October 21, 2021 - If there were some glimmers yesterday, they're dashed today. One more death reported. A new high for hospitalizations - 235 (30). But 30 on vents is NOT a high. We've been up to 35. Down to 12 available ICU beds statewide and 2 in Anchorage.
1000/1001 new resident cases and 21 more non-res cases.
Almost 13,000 tests. Test Positivity is up slightly from yesterday at 10.4. But still down from Monday's 10.97 highpoint.
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 - Eight more people reported dead of COVID. 19 more hospitalized. But hospitalization dropped by seven to 205 while people on vents went up by one to 29. I guess eight people dying vacates hospital beds. There are two fewer ICU beds statewide (17) and two more in Anchorage (6).
895/821 new resident cases. (First number is my subtracting yesterday's number from today's and the second number is what the state reported as new cases today.) Eight new non-res cases.
Just under 11,000 cases. AND Test Positivity dropped .6 to 10.32. Let's see if a trend develops over time.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021 - Since yesterday was a holiday, we've got four days worth of numbers. The big news: 65 newly reported deaths since Friday! Some of that is catch up. Not sure how much is the last four days. Bronson and Dunleavy - these are due to your aiding and abetting a terrorist virus.
2767/507 new resident cases since Friday or an average of 691 a day. Lower than the previous couple of days, but still way too high. 56 new non-res cases.
35 newly reported hospitalizations. And the number of COVID patients in the hospital is up 10 from Friday to 212 and 28 on ventilators. 17 ICU beds available statewide, 4 in Anchorage.
About 28,500 tests or 7,000 a day over the weekend. Test Positivity reached another new high - 10.97. The mask mandate impact hasn't kicked in yet.
I'd note we're just under 60% of the over 12 population fully vaccinated. But there's a note on that Dashboard: " We are currently investigating the overestimation of fully vaccinated among 12+"
But the virus can keep finding refuge in unvaccinated bodies, and 40% of over 12 (about 240,000 people) could be giving sanctuary to the terrorist virus and giving it more chance to mutate into even nastier variations.
Monday, October 18, 2021 - 3:25pm It's Alaska Day, so I guess there are no new numbers until tomorrow.
Friday, October 15, 2021 - The Anchorage Assembly overturned the Mayor's veto of the mask mandate yesterday. So now we can test how effective such a mandate is. Granted the enforcement is pretty loose, but we have a benchmark we can check against in two weeks.
Two more deaths reported today. 16 new hospitalizations. But actual COVID patients in Alaska hospitals is down six to 202 and people on ventilators is down three to 22. Available ICU beds in Alaska-Anchorage didn't change - 21-6.
New resident cases are up eleven to 968/964. Non resident cases adds 16 more.
Just under 14,000 tests reported. Test Positivity down (from 10.76) to 10.68. This is the number I'm hoping to see drop.
Thursday, October 14, 2021 - The mayor vetoed the mask mandate and the Assembly meets today to override the veto. Two more people died of COVID. 17 more were reported hospitalized. 208 (25) are in the hospital with COVID in Alaska (25 on vents.) There're 21 available ICU beds statewide, six inAnchorage.
959/964 new resident cases reported. 21 non-res.
About 10,500 tests. Test Positivity dipped slightly to 10.76. Still 3rd highest point ever.
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - Last night the Assembly passed 9-1 an emergency mask mandate for indoors. 60 days. So today is something of a benchmark day to see in three weeks whether things are getting better. Of course, most of these numbers are statewide, not just Anchorage.
For the record, today is the first day in the last 26 days with no deaths reported. But since September 16, 2021 131 people have been reported to have died of COVID statewide. Using the cases dashboard, looking at Anchorage Borough, there were 94 deaths in Anchorage for August, September, and October. (I can only get monthly totals.) Deaths happen a week or more after someone is diagnosed with COVID. So, as long as new cases are high, there will be COVID deaths in the future. Alaska seems to be comparatively low in deaths/100,000 compared to other states. Partly, I'd guess because we kept cases low early on before doctors knew how to treat COVID patients.
There were eight new hospitalizations reported today, but the hospital dashboard says there are 18 more COVID patients currently in the hospital and 26 are on vents. Available ICU beds dropped by five in Alaska-Anchorage to 21-4.
After yesterday's relatively low 444 new resident cases, today almost three times that many is reported -1205/1220. Eighteen more non-resident cases.
There were a lot more tests reported today - 14,379. Despite that, our Test Positivity went up to another new high - 10.92! Let's hope tomorrow it starts going down. But I'm afraid the mask mandate is going to take longer to have its impact. And it appears the enforcement clauses are week and the Mayor is unlikely to enforce the mandate anyway. Recall is not far off.
Tuesday, October 12, 2021 - 16 new deaths reported today. I'm assuming some, if not most, are catchup reports. 33 new hospitalizations reported. Total number of hospitalized patients up two to 186, vent patients down three to 20. But being on a vent is a terrible thing. See: Being on a Ventilator Was the Worst Experience of My Life, So Please Avoid Getting COVID-19 and Needing One if you doubt me.
The number of new resident cases reported today dropped nearly 50% to 444/464. If that's not just a one day blip, that is great news. There were twelve non-res cases.
There were relatively few tests - 4,103 and Test Positivity reached a new high - 10.78. (See yesterday's notes on Test Positivity.)
Monday, October 11, 2021 - Again, today's big news is that the Test Positivity rate is at a new high yet again. Friday's 10.12 was a high. Today it's 10.67. What does this mean? From the Johns Hopkins medical center:
WHAT DOES A HIGH PERCENT POSITIVE MEAN?
A high percent positive means that more testing should probably be done—and it suggests that it is not a good time to relax restrictions aimed at reducing coronavirus transmission. Because a high percentage of positive tests suggests high coronavirus infection rates (due to high transmission in the community), a high percent positive can indicate it may be a good time to add restrictions to slow the spread of disease.
HOW HIGH IS TOO HIGH?
The higher the percent positive is, the more concerning it is. As a rule of thumb, however, one threshold for the percent positive being “too high” is 5%. For example, the World Health Organization recommended in May that the percent positive remain below 5% for at least two weeks before governments consider reopening. If we are successful in bringing coronavirus transmission under control, this threshold might be lowered over time. To further relax social restrictions and allow very large gatherings or meetings of people traveling from many different areas, for example, we would want a lower threshold. (emphasis added).
So, above 5% = you need more testing, you need to add restrictions to stop the spread. Our mayor wants to restrict testing and is strongly opposed even to a mask mandate. Imagine being on a plane he was piloting and he flatly rejected the instructions he got from FAA on the ground. That's what's happening here. He knows better than all the doctors.
Four more people reported to have died of COVID over the weekend. These deaths, Mayor and Governor, are on you! Only four more reported hospitalized. That's a good number, but Monday numbers here are often low. The number of reported COVID patients hospitalized only dropped by two to 184 and those on vents are down one to 29. Available ICU beds remains 18 statewide and zero in Anchorage!
2735/792 new resident positive tests over the weekend/since Sunday. 40 new non-resident cases.
About 27,600 tests since Friday, and as I reported on top, even with about 9000 tests a day, our test positivity went up to 10.67!
Friday, October 8, 2021 - Yet another death reported. Nine more hospitalizations. Current COVID patients in Alaska hospitals is up six to 186. Vent patients down one to 30. Available ICU beds Alaska/Anchorage down six/three to 18/0. I'm guessing the Anchorage number would be lower except they don't report negative numbers.
824/825 new resident cases. 800s is our new plateau this week. 10 new non-res cases.
But the BIG NEWS TODAY is Test Positivity has broken 10.0 for the first time. We're at 10.12 off of 9100 tests.
The mayor wants to cut back on tests
- by charging for non-symptomatic tests and
- just cutting back period.
Last year he testified at the Assembly.
“I know how to end this epidemic or this pandemic, stop testing, we won’t have anymore cases.”
Seems relevant. “I know how to end this epidemic or this pandemic, stop testing, we won’t have anymore cases.”
— The Blue Alaskan (@thebluealaskan) October 7, 2021
David Bronson, September 29, 2020 pic.twitter.com/evVID2dMbk
But if he cuts back on testing, then Test Positivity will go up, because it is the percent of positive tests. If only those with symptoms get tested, then the Test Positivity will go up. And it will mean that a lot more people are positive who haven't been identified.
Thursday, October 7, 2021 - Five more deaths. 20 new hospitalizations. Though the actual number of COVID patients in the hospital is down four to 180 and people on vents is down four to 31. (But presumably the five people who died opened some hospital beds.)
Still in the 800s for new resident cases - 835/842. And 20 new non-resident cases.
About 10,900 tests. Test Positivity is down from yesterday's all time high, to 9.48.
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 - Test Positivity is at an all time high - 9.97 - ready to breach 10. This is a key indicator because it tells us what percent of people tested, test positive. There were about 10,500 tests reported.
Another indicator that the various metrics aren't in synch - the reported new resident cases was 851/857. Non-resident cases added ten more. But 9.97% of 10,500 would give us 1000+ new cases.
There were three more deaths - up to 2495. Five more and it will be 2500. If they were all in Seward, then only 217 people would still be alive there.
Hospital numbers from different Dashboards don't match either. There were 30 more hospitalized people, but hospitalization numbers are down 184 (35) - that is ten lower than yesterday's 194 COVID patients and down three from yesterday's38 on vents. But this could also just reflect those who died and those who were healthy enough to leave the hospital. The available ICU beds state wide is up nine to 28 and in Anchorage it's up two to three.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - It's 10:38am. The Hospital and Testing Dashboards have been updated, but not the Cases Dashboard. There's no date stamp on the dashboards, so if you don't know yesterday's numbers, you can't easily tell if you're looking at today's dashboard. On the interactive ones, you can put the cursor on the latest column of a graph and it will show you a date. If it's yesterday, then the dashboard is up-to-date. I'll wait for the regular report here until the cases dashboard is updated.
10:50am - Cases are up now too. Three new deaths. The last day that there were zero deaths reported was September16. Since that day, 108 deaths have been reported. Imagine if there had been 108 murders in in the last three weeks. (Annual homicides 37). Or fatal auto crashes. (Annual average about 64) Or fatal bear attacks.(Less than one per year) Our state and municipal government would be declaring an emergency and enacting all sorts of measures to stop the slaughter. But our governor is "on top of things." Our mayor says he doesn't know what else he can do. (Some of the deaths reported occurred earlier, but the state only got the info caught up. But then deaths that are occurring now aren't showing up yet either.
12 new hospitalizations, though actual COVID patients in the hospital had its biggest drop in a while - from 216 yesterday to 194 today. Those on vent went down by two, to 18. On the other hand available ICU beds dropped by three to 19 statewide and by six to one in Anchorage.
820/835 new resident cases. We're below 1000, but that's still a lot of new cases. And additional 37 non-residents tested positive.
About 11,000 tests. Test Positivity reached its highest ever level - 9.86.
Monday, October 4, 2021 - One more death reported. 21 new hospitalizations. 216 (40) COVID patients in the hospital now (40 on vents). Both those numbers are very close to all time highs.
2177/409 reported new resident cases - 2177 since Friday and 409 since Sunday. The average per day for the three days is 711, which is below 1000 and lower than what we've been seeing.
There were about 28.000 tests since Friday. Test Positivity is down slightly to 9,49. Still a very contagious number.
Friday, October 1, 2021 - One more death. Nine more hospitalizations. Down by one in both current COVID patients in the hospital (202) and people on vents (35). Available ICU beds up by seven statewide (23) and in Anchorage (8).
1005 new resident cases and 33 new non-res cases.
Number of tests didn't change from yesterday when I updated the table this morning, and I just checked again now before updating below the table, and it still has yesterday's numbers. But Test Positivity is up .2 to 9.61. 9.71 is the highest I have recorded Sept. 16, 2021.
Thursday, September 30, 2021- We had a few days with lower new case counts and some movement in the right direction. Not today. But remember, reported dates don't necessarily reflect when things happened.
So, today's reported ten new deaths include some (most?) that are only just catching up to the reporting stage from some time back. There were also 30 reported new hospitalizations. But number of actual COVID patients in the hospital dipped slightly - 203 (36) that's 203 in the hospital, 36 on vents. But available ICU beds dropped statewide (to 16) and in Anchorage (to 1).
1237/1234 new resident cases reported. Back above 1000. By my count, there have been 9734 new resident cases in the last week. (My count means I simply subtract yesterday's cumulative total from today's. The State's count on Monday's only counts for one day, not three.) With the non-resident cases it means you have 10,000 more chances to run into someone with COVID in the market or at a meeting.
Almost 12,500 tests. Test Positivity, a 9.42, has been moving back up after several days of dropping. The highest it's been is 9.71 on September 16, 2021.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021- For yesterday and today, things are slightly better. I think. The new cases dropped down below 1000 - to 664/694 yesterday and up today to 968/976.
Deaths increased by 10 yesterday and 4 today. These aren't necessarily deaths that happened in the last two days, but reflect the DHHS catching up with a backlog of data. (I know this from reading DHHS tweets and an hour long discussion the other day.)
22 new hospitalizations reported today (29 yesterday). 207(39) current people in the hospital with COVID (39 on vents). Thats a drop of two for total in the hospital now from yesterday, but an increase of six on vents.
About 12,700 tests reported today, slightly more than reported yesterday. (I keep saying 'reported' because the numbers they put up today are the numbers that came in yesterday.) Test Positivity reported today is 9.2, yesterday 9.12, and the day before that 9.16.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - Just came here to put up the Wednesday comments and see that I didn't get Tuesday up. I know I had a glitch getting the table updated on SCRIBD yesterday. I'm guessing when I went to fix that, I forgot to update Tuesday here. Well let's just go up to Wednesday. The Tuesday data are on the table so you can check there and I'll include Tuesday in the Wednesday comments.
Monday, September 27, 2021 - There's a new cases Dashboard today. First I got this:
Note, it says 532 deaths total. Friday's death total was 514. So I calculated 18 deaths over the weekend and put those two numbers in the long PDF table up above. This page above with the red High alert banner scrolls down to other charts. I clicked on the gray bar above the red alert to go to Cases, Deaths, and Hospitalizations which got me to this page below:
This one says (lower right) Deaths: 243. Well, that lowest lighter blue bar says "Since Jan 11, 2021"
And I can't even find this page again. Here's another part of the Cases, Deaths,and Hospitalizations Dashboard. (Those are the basic numbers - plus testing - that I've been covering.)
Friday, September 24,2021 - Sit down before you read this. 41 new deaths were reported today. As I mentioned yesterday, there were rumors of a large backlog of death certificates, so I'm guessing a lot came in yesterday and this wasn't a one day total. But still, it's an almost 10% increase over yesterday's total death count. (Our first Alaska death was reported on March 24, 2020.)
Total hospitalizations are up 19 today to 2335. Again, getting close to 10% of our total that accumulated over 20 months, in just one day! Currently there are 217(41) COVID patients in Alaska hospitals, 41 on vents! An all time high. There are 20 ICU beds available statewide and eight in Anchorage.
Sit down again. There were 1729/1735 new resident cases reported. Yesterday was an all time high and today is 450 higher. There were 57 new non-res cases.
12,348 tests. Test Positivity is up over 9.0 to 9.23.
[UPDATE 3:38pm: Just listened to an hour DHHS report with journalists asking questions: Basic information:
The case numbers and the death numbers (and probably the other numbers) are backlogged and so they don't really represent yesterday's actual numbers. The reported numbers are higher than actual numbers because old cases are included. You can watch it here (first part is particularly content rich, but the reporters also asked useful questions: https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1OyKADMaqaOxb]
Thursday, September 23, 2021 - Mood stays grim. Seven more deaths reported. Some folks speculating there's a serious undercount on top of the fact that Alaska death certificates are backlogged due to a computer attack last spring. 40 new hospitalizations reported. Again, these numbers don't quite square with the current hospitalization numbers - 209(34). We don't have reports of people released from the hospital. We know seven died. 40 more hospitalizations, but only nine more current COVID patients listed as in the hospital now. (34 on vent).
1273/1285 new resident cases reported. That's 53 more than yesterday's record high. Available state and Anchorage ICU beds 20-7.
About 13,600 tests. Test Positivity actually dipped below 9.0 for the first time since September 10 to 8.95. Moving in the right direction, but I'm not holding my breath that it continues.
Here's where things stood when Anchorage Mayor Bronson was sworn in at the beginning of July:
| Anchorage Covid # | July 2 Mayor Bronson Starts |
9/23/21 | Change # | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total deaths | 370 | 473 | +103 | +28% |
| Total hospitalizations | 1619 | 2316 | +697 | +43% |
| Total positive cases | 64,478 | 101,384 | +36,906 | +57% |
| New cases (this day) | 99(2 days)48 (1 day) | 1285 | +1186 | +1198% |
| Total non-resident cases | 2906 | 4509 | +1603 | +55% |
| Test Positivity | 1.54 | 8.95 | +7.41 | +481% |
| Currently in hospital with COVID | 19 | 209 | +190 | +1000% |
| Available ICU beds | 47 |
20 | -27 | -42% |
| [Made a couple of corrections here |
I'd also note that July 2, 2021 was 18 month into the pandemic. So it took 18 months to get to the levels we were at then. It's not even 3 months since Bronson got us to this terrible state.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021 - One new death. 39 new hospitalizations. That's a big jump, though the actual COVID patients in the hospital doesn't reflect that - just up four from yesterday at 200(34) and the 34 on vents. Statewide ICU beds up four to 200 (34). The 34 are people on vents.
Biggest news is 1220/1224 new resident cases. Another new single day high. And 27 non-resident cases.
11,113 tests. Test Positivity actually dropped a bit to 9.07. But that's a factor of the seven day rolling average. A particularly high day eight days ago must have dropped off as this new one was added.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 - Six new deaths reported today. That makes 12 deaths in the last three reports. 26 new hospitalizations. Currently hospitalized COVID patients is down two from yesterday -196(34) - but the number on vents is the same. Six people dying does free up beds, doesn't it Mayor? Is that your strategy? Sixteen statewide ICU beds available, two in Anchorage.
830/835 new resident cases. 26 new non resident cases.
There were a lot of tests - 24,482. Yet the Test Positivity level went up slightly to 9.62 from 9.61. But that's a factor of this number being a seven day rolling average.
Stay home folks. And if you do go out mask up.
Monday, September 20, 2021 - Five new deaths over the weekend. Only four new hospitalizations. Total number of COVID patients in the hospital statewide dipped from 204 Friday to 198 today, but people on Vents went up from 33 to 37. Down to 16 statewide available ICU beds. Just one in Anchorage.
2,059/517 new resident cases over the weekend (517 since yesterday according to the state.) The three day average would be close to 700. 52 non-res new cases.
About 13,800 tests. Test Positivity up slightly to 9.61.
Friday, September17, 2021 -One new death. 24 new hospitalizations COVID patients currently in the hospital are down two - 204 (33) and ICU bed availability is up slightly to 19-9 (Alaska - Anchorage)
870/875 new resident cases is well below yesterday, but still high. 18 new non-res cases.
About 15,100 tests and the Test Positivity dipped slightly to 9.58.
Have a good weekend.
Thursday, September 16, 2021 - No new deaths. Eleven new hospitalizations. 206(34) COVID patients in the hospital (34 on vents.) 14 ICU beds available statewide. Zero, none in Anchorage.
1027 new resident cases - 37 fewer than yesterdays record high. 26 new non-resident cases.
About 13,200 tests. Again, despite that relatively high number of tests, Test Positivity is up to 9.71 yet another all time high. I'm really hoping we don't break 10.0 and start heading down.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - We need a new way of classifying insane. Doctors from Providence Medical Center testified at the Assembly that we are in a health crisis and that 30% of their patients are COVID positive and require much more intensive care, and people jeered them and Assembly Member Allard questioning the veracity of their testimony.
 |
| From Hrrrl Scouts Twitter coverage of Assembly |
They Mayor of Anchorage is quoted in the Anchorage Daily News today as having said last week that "hospital capacity issues weren't caused byCOVID-19 patients but nurses leaving their jobs over vaccination requirements." I'm going to believe the doctor's knowledge about the hospital crisis over the Mayor's undocumented claims.
Meanwhile we have two more deaths reported today (nine reported in the last three days.) 18 more hospitalizations. 201(34) COVID patients in the hospital- one less overall from yesterday, but one more on vents. Is it an improvement when we gain a hospital bed because two people died?
1064/1068 new resident cases. That's another 2021 record. It's a pandemic record period for one day. (If you scroll through the chart above you'll see some higher numbers in that column - but those are for more than one day (usually Mondays when three days are reported.) 27 new non-resident cases.
Over 11,700 tests, a fairly high one day number, yet the Test Positivity went up from 9.1 to 9.62. A couple of notes here. 1) Test Positivity is on a rolling seven day average. So, even though yesterday it reported 9.1, today it reports (for 9/13/21) 9.57. Adding today's high number and dropping off the number eight days ago, raises all the numbers. and 2) Test Positivity is the percent of people tested who test positive. So if the Test Positivity is high, it means you should test more. I said 'yet' above because 11,000 tests is higher then normal for one day, but the number still went up. We should be testing more. But the staffing to do all the contact tracing is probably not available for this level of infection.
Tuesday, September 14, 2021 - Six more deaths. I suspect some of these are catchup from the weekend. 21 new hospitalizations. But current hospitalized patients dropped eight. (Again, numbers coming from different dashboards don't always mesh right. Still 33 on vents. Available ICU beds up by one statewide and four in Anchorage (to four.) Not sure if ICU bed availability reflects change in number of patients or whether hospitals are creating extra ICU beds.
676/676 new resident patients. That's higher than the daily average over the weekend. 15 new non-resident patients.
About 6100 tests, yet Test Positivity is down slightly from yesterday's high of 9.25 to 9.1. Still above nine is not a good place to be.
Monday, September 13, 2021 - Still getting worse. One more death over the weekend. Seven more hospitalizations. The Anchorage Daily News said today, "With multiple reporting methods in use, pinning down the true burden on health care facilities..." which I've suggested occasionally here to explain inconsistencies between the cases and hospital dashboards. Seven new hospitalizations seems way too low over the weekend. Especially since current hospitalized COVID patients is at yet another 2021 high of 210(33). Available ICU beds is up statewide to 22 but down in Anchorage to 0. (They don't report negative numbers which could represent people turned away.)
1417/277 new resident cases over the weekend (my 1417) and 277 since Sunday (the Dashboard's number.) 277 would be a low number, but 1400 over three days averages to more like 466 per day.
A lot of tests over the weekend - about 30,000! But even with that many, the Test Positivity (which should go lower when you have more tests) is at a 2021 record high of 9.25.
I was hoping we would reach a peak and then come back down. But with events like the State Fair pretending everything was normal, it's still going up.
Friday, September 10, 2021 - Most indicators moved in the wrong direction. Deaths +2. Hospitalizations +19. Total in hospital now up two to 208 (27) (On vents). Available ICU beds down eight statewide to 13 and down six in Anchorage to just one.
New resident cases 675/677 and 26 non-resident cases.
Tests: About 13,900 with Test Positivity another new 2021 high of 8.98!
Check back Monday when the post new numbers.
Thursday, September 9, 2021 - Yet worse. No new deaths, but the other numbers are bad. 26 new resident hospitalizations. 206(29) people currently in the hospital. Another high. Available state-Anchorage ICU beds down to 21-7.
805/809 new resident cases. 37 new non-res cases.
Almost 16,000 tests, yet the Test Positivity is up to a new 2021 high of 8.8.
Wednesday, September 8, 2021 - Still getting worse. Five more deaths. 24 new hospitalizations. 197(26). Another 2021 and all time high. Available ICU beds statewide-Anchorage = 26-9. That's worse than yesterday, but not close to zero as we've been at times late.
808/808 new resident case. We're moving back up and that means there will be more hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks. 34 non-resident new cases.
About 7,100 tests. Test Positivity is up again, from 8.07 to 8.17. A 2021 high.
Tuesday, September 7, 2021 - Yesterday was Labor Day, so there were no numbers. That means we get four days worth today.
Two new deaths - to a total of 437. 17 new hospitalizations or about four per day which seems low.
We're up to 186 (23) hospitalization (on vents) right now. 186 is another record for 2021. It's also the highest I have recorded. I started keeping track of this number on Nov. 19, 2020. Surprisingly, the available number of ICU units increased to 28 statewide and 11 in Anchorage.
2060/432 new resident cases. Again, that's for four days. So an average of about 515 per day since Friday. 88 new non-resident cases. High, but not the worst.
34,683 tests over the four days. The most worrisome number aside from current hospitalizations is the Test Positivity - 8.07. That's the highest in 2020 and the highest since Nov 23, 2020 when it was 8.13.
Friday, September 3, 2021 - Things look slightly better today, but one day does not make a trend. We'll see what the Monday numbers look like.
No new deaths.
12 new hospitalizations. This is still the sticky part. 165 (23) current COVID hospitalizations (23 on vents). I think that's one more record - several days in a row. Only 15 statewide available ICU beds. Only three in Anchorage. Of course, that number changes during the day. If you need a bed, you don't know which hospital will be able to admit you.
570/579 new resident cases. That's the lowest single day number since last Friday. Down to 12 non-resident cases.
About 9,900 tests. Test Positivity is below 7 for the first time since Aug 25. It's 6.91.
Stay healthy.
Thursday, September 2, 2021 - No new deaths. 10 new hospitalizations. 164 (25) currently in the hospital. It appears that the 164 is the total number and 25 is how many of the 164 are on vents. But it's not totally clear and the Hospital Dashboard FAQs doesn't clear it up.
670/682 new resident cases. 45 new non resident cases.
14,202 tests. On the high side for a single day, which might explain why the Test Positivity dipped slightly to 7.22. I'm having some trouble posting the new numbers on the Scribd table. But I'm assuming that will clear up shortly.
Wednesday, September 1, 2021 - For all the folks complaining about how Biden got us out of Afghanistan, yet didn't really work hard to get past the 20 years of wishful thinking about how well the Afghan army and government were doing, think carefully about your beliefs that COVID is a hoax, that herd immunity will make it disappear, that younger people don't get sick or die, that masks and vaccines don't matter. You're thinking like those so focused on myths about American exceptionalism and our ability to make anything happen because ... we are America. The Alaska numbers are worse once again and it's the fault of a Governor who cares more about his agenda of cutting government and getting reelected than about the lives of Alaskans. It's the fault of people profiting from slick podcasts and websites that spread misinformation and alternative medicines that range from useless too dangerous. It's the fault of people so vested in some mythical better time in America that they believe anything that supports their false vision.
Sorry, but four more people died yesterday. That's adding to the four who died the day before. 13 more were hospitalized. Another new record of COVID hospitalizations was set: 181 or 161(20) - the (20) are COVID positive or suspected who are on Vents. That sounds like nothing, but BEING ON A VENT IS HORRIBLE! This is from Yale Medicine
"The goal is for patients to be awake and calm while they are on a ventilator, but that can sometimes be difficult; many require light sedation for comfort, Dr. Ferrante says.
“Sometimes, patients develop delirium, or an acute state of confusion. And when patients become confused, they might try to pull out their endotracheal tube, which connects them to the ventilator,” she says. “Patients with delirium can be lucid one moment and confused the next. Although we try to avoid sedation as much as possible, particularly in delirious patients, we may have to give some sedation to prevent people from causing self-harm, like pulling out the breathing tube.”
Furthermore, patients with ARDS often feel a natural instinct to take in very big breaths, Dr. Ferrante adds. “Very large breaths can be harmful to an ARDS patient’s lungs, so we try to have their breath size match what we have set on the ventilator,” she says.
Typically, most patients on a ventilator are somewhere between awake and lightly sedated. However, Dr. Ferrante notes that ARDS patients in the ICU with COVID-19 may need more heavy sedation so they can protect their lungs, allowing them to heal."
Here's another description from the Medical School at Ohio State University.
22 available ICU beds in Alaska, six in Anchorage. That's a slight improvement, thanks, I guess to the four people who died.
761/765 new resident cases. Yet another one day record for 2021. Not the kind of records we want. Also, 37 new non resident cases.
About 11,000 tests. Test Positivity dipped slightly. Yesterday was the highest TP of 2021 and today is the second highest at 7.47. You can't fly on this 747 though.
And with Matsu having the 3rd worst Alaska vaccine record at 44% (one or more shots) yet hosting the State Fair and trying to open schools without masks, be assured things are going to get worse before they get better.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021 - Sorry I'm late today. We took advantage of this beautiful day to hike along Lake Eklutna. Didn't get to the computer until no - 5:30ish. Eklutna was much better for my mental health than the COVID dashboards.
4 new deaths. 21 new hospitalizations. 606/601 new resident cases. 33 more non-res cases.
171 currently hospitalized - that's 152(19) The 19 are confirmed and suspected COVID patients on ventilators.
11,302* tests. Test Positivity is another new 2021 high of 7.56.
*Sometimes I say 'about xxx tests.' Occasionally I'll have an exact number. I only do the exact numbers when they're really easy to subtract in my head, like today.
2,737,989
-2,726,687.
Monday, August 30, 2021 - Things aren't getting better. It seems a slow drift toward worse. Not all numbers get worse each day, but there tends to be bad numbers every day.
Today - 17 available ICU beds statewide and 0 available in Anchorage. That's terrible.
No new deaths at least. State numbers indicate three new hospitalizations since Friday. That's good if it really reflects actual numbers. Hospital Dashboard does show a decline from 142(27) to 142(18). So number of COVID confirmed and suspected on Vent went down by 1/3.
1119/152 new resident cases. The first number is since Friday and the second is what the state says happened since yesterday. But 1119/3 days averages to over 370 a day. So the 152 seems really low. The 1119 is the highest three day new resident cases this year. There were 44 new non-res cases.
About 23,800 tests with a 7.27 Test Positivity. (The goal is below 1 or less).
Friday, August 27, 2021 - No new deaths. New hospitalizations at a low six. But, currently hospitalized numbers are up: 169 total, 142 COVID/27 COVID and suspected COVID on vents. That's a 2021 record high. ICU availability is up a bit to 29 statewide and seven in Anchorage.
New cases are down from yesterdays 2021 record high of 700/701. 509/511, though they may not have been able to track every one. And we don't know how many folks are positive but never got tested. But that's always the case.
10,123 tests. Test Positivity is up again to 7.36. The highest this year was 7.45 about 9 days ago.
The weekend will bring us no bad official numbers, because, well they don't update over the weekend.
Thursday, August 26, 2021 - The good news is no new deaths reported today. 16 more hospitalizations. Currently hospitalized is down seven to 153 - 127(26). There are only20 available ICU beds statewide and only two in Anchorage! We're really skating on the edge. Non-COVID patients need to suck it up and stay healthy until enough people get vaccinated to free the hospital beds.
700/701 new resident cases. When this number is so high, we know future hospitalizations and deaths will go up.
About 10,900 tests. Test positivity got back up above seven again - 7.03. This chart shows you Test Positivity over time. I'm giving you the link because the chart is interactive - put the cursor over any point and it gives you the date and the level.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - The Grim Reaper is back. Eight more deaths after 13 yesterday. That makes 11 last week and 21 so far this week!
Thirteen new hospitalizations in the Cases Dashboard. But the Hospital Dashboard is a high for this year - 160 COVID patients. 130 COVID and 30 COVID and COVID suspected on Vents. Yesterday it was only 149, minus eight for deaths gets us to 141. But you need 19 to get to 160, not 13. So the numbers from chart to chart continue to have some leakage.
574/573 new resident cases. My number is the same as yesterday, but the State's number is higher. Plus 50 non-resident new cases!
11,155 tests. Test Positivity up from yesterday's 6.47 to 6.78.
I went to the Redistricting Board meetings yesterday and Monday. I mingled - there really was no way to stay socially distant - with other masked people (masks were required and there was a box of masks at the entrance.) It was nice to talk to people I hadn't seen before and meet new people. But it's not a great idea. But everyone was wearing masks. So I get it that people want to be out with other people. But try to limit it and always wear a mask when others are near. And, of course, get vaccinated if you haven't already. As unvaccinated people continue to die - 21 in Alaska in two days - the rationale for not vaccinating is dying too. [I'm assuming the deaths were all unvaccinated since I haven't figure out where to find that information on the State dashboards. But it would be consistent with trends elsewhere.]
Tuesday, August 24, 2021 - 13 new deaths! I'd like to think some of these are only just now being reported and that they didn't all happen since yesterday. There were 16 new hospitalizations. The total in hospital - 149 or 121(28) - is down slightly from yesterday. There are 34 available ICU beds in Alaska. Eight in Anchorage, up from three yesterday.
574/562 new resident cases. That's a new 2021 one day high. [I was wrong. Last Wed and Thursday were over 600 each day] It wa There were 31 new non-resident cases.
About 6800 tests but the Test Positivity dropped to its lowest level since August 9 - 6.47.
The deaths are the result of the increasing new cases and hospitalizations. We continue to have high new case numbers so we're going to have more hospitalizations and deaths down the line. I'm not sure why the Test Positivity is down. We didn't have a very high number of new tests, but we did have a high number of cases.
Monday, August 23, 2021 - No deaths. 15 new hospitalizations. The hospitalization dashboard shows 128(27) [positive COVID hospital patients (COVID and suspect on Vents)] are up to 153 (combined) from 144 Friday. That's a new 2021 high.
1054/221 new resident cases. My number is since Friday and the State's 221 is since Sunday. If you scroll down to last Monday (Aug. 16) you can see the Monday numbers for the previous five weeks.New non-resident cases are up to 62.
About 24,700 tests over the weekend and the Test Positivity stays above seven at 7.1.
Friday, August 20, 2021 - Two more deaths. 20 more hospitalizations. Currently hospitalized 144 - 125 COVID pos plus 19 on Vents COVID pos or suspected. That's one less vent than yesterday. One of the folks that died? Both deaths plus someone new on a vent?
441/443 new resident cases. This is an almost 200 person drop from yesterday. It's the bright spot of today's numbers. 18 new non-resident cases.
About 10,400 tests, which is on the high end of daily test numbers which means the drop in total new cases wasn't for lack of testing. Nevertheless, Test Positivity went up slightly to 7.12 (from 7.1)
Thursday, August 19, 2021 - We have a slowdown (not getting too optimistic yet) in our upward surge of bad numbers.
No new deaths. 18 new hospitalizations, but actual COVID patients has dipped two to 125(21) for a total of 146. Available statewide ICU beds dropped three to 25, but Anchorage ICU beds increased to nine.
639/631 new resident cases. That's up a bit from yesterday, so it's a new 2021 high point. The non-resident tab is back working. There was an increase of 96 from Tuesday, the State says 55 new non-resident cases since yesterday.
About 9800 tests. Test Positivity down a bit from 7;45 yesterday to 7.06 today. But that's a slippery number, reported as a seven day average. Which would seem to keep it from moving too fast in either direction. And the numbers for all seven days in the average change daily.
Most customers at Lowe's were wearing masks this morning. That's a good sign.
Let's congratulate the Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula area. They are the only region that is over 90% (91%) with one or more vaccinations. Six more are in the 80%-88% range.
The lowest three are Southeast Fairbanks Census area - 34% one+ dose, North Slope Borough 39%, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough at 42%. Matsu has decided to not mandate masks in schools or school buses. We'll see how that works out soon.
Wednesday, August 18,2021 - Four new deaths reported today. That's nine in the last two days.
Current COVID patients hospitalized 148 - that's 127 listed as 'Currently Hospitalized - COVID positive" and 21 more listed as 'Currently On Vent Statewide - COVID Positive or Suspected'. Or, as I've been reporting 127/21. That's an increase of one person since yesterday. The cases dashboard says there are 13 newly hospitalized people. That sounds about right - four people died and a few others maybe got better and left the hospital.
28 available ICU beds Statewide. Three in Anchorage!
633/617 new resident cases. That's a new 2021 high for one day and the highest since Dec. 10, 2021. The Cases Dashboard changed. Instead of 'resident' and 'non-resident' options, we now get 'resident' and 'all' options. But I couldn't get the all button to get me different data from 'resident' data. Not sure why they thought this was a better idea. Every time you change how you organize the data, you making tracking and comparisons harder. So there has to be a really compelling reason. And if you change the Dashboard, but it doesn't actually work . . .
About 10,500 tests. Test Positivity is up to 7.43. Another 2021 high. Hasn't been this high since November 23, 2020 when it was 8.13.
If you get to talk - not shout - with an anti-vaxxer, just ask when their relationship with their parents changed from parent/child to friend/friend.
Tuesday, August 17, 2021 - Continuing decline. In a number of cases here, I believe that the numbers should be seen as "as reported today" and not necessarily what happened yesterday.
Five new deaths. I expect that these happened over several days, not just one day. Either way it's grim.
43 new hospitalizations! Again, I think the records are just getting caught up and that many of these happened over the weekend. Yesterday only seven were reported for three days.
The hospital dashboard shows132 (15) COVID Patients hospitalized now/Positive&Suspected COVID on Vents. (Before it was clear the 15 should be added to the 132. I suspect that's still the case, but I'm not sure. There are 30 available ICU beds in Alaska and we're up to six in Anchorage. Did they add new ones? Or did people get better? Five died, so maybe they freed up ICU space. (I realize how macabre this sounds. Sorry.)
There were 3784 new tests and test positivity was listed as 6.79. I multiplied .0679 X 3784. I got 257. But the number of new cases is listed as 431/436. I would say the Test Positivity is higher than 6.79.
Basically, people who can, should assume lockdown. At the very least, minimize who you mix with and always wear masks indoors and if you're close to folks you don't know outdoors.
Monday, August 16, 2021 - When Anchorage has no available ICU beds on a Friday, it really is time to post the numbers seven days a week again. But no. We have 3 available ICU beds in Anchorage reported today. Statewide there are 30 ICU beds available. 123(12) Alaskans currently in the hospital with COVID. The 12 is on Vents.
No new deaths, but with more people hospitalized, it seems just a matter of time. The cases dashboard says seven new hospitalizations (subtracting Friday's total from today's), which matches the hospital dashboard's 123, but not the 12 on Vents.
There were 1000/275 new cases over the three days since Friday. The State reports just the one-day increase from its secret numbers (It's probably out there in one of the many tables available, but it would be more effort than I think is worth spending.) Let's look at the Monday (with three day counts) numbers for a little over a month:
- Monday July 12 180/23
- Monday July 19 338/82
- Monday July 28 535/120
- Monday Aug 2 703/226
- Monday Aug 9 812/185
- Today M 8/16 1000/275
Friday, August 13, 2021 - Slightly better than yesterday. No new deaths 20 new hospitalizations. Ten fewer hospitalized COVID patients, but one more Vent- 116(9). Available ICU beds up two to 26 statewide. BUT there are none available in Anchorage.
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| For Anchorage 8/13/21 |
I think this is the first time we've been here. So don't have a heart attack, serious stroke, car crash, or any other event that would require an ICU bed in Anchorage today and probably over the weekend.
313/313 new resident cases. (I always like it when my calculations match the State's number, but if they don't match I don't worry about it. My number always = today's #-yesterday's #. There were 25 new non-resident cases.
About 5700 test. Test Positivity down ever so slightly from 7.1 to 7.01.
Be firm, but patient with the anti-maskers. They've attached some sort of emotional and/or ideological symbolism to the masks. And once they've joined that club, there's a lot of peer pressure not to defect. They even are willing to risk their children's lives to stay members of the club.
Thursday, August 12, 2021 - Bad numbers today. Three new deaths. 22 new hospitalizations. (This makes more sense than yesterday's 4 - I guess they're catching up.) Hospitalizations are 123 (8) - the eight are on Vents and listed as 'COVID -positive and suspected.' That's a combined increase from yesterday of four (not 22). We're down to 24 available ICU beds in Alaska.
376/378 new resident cases. We have to go back to January 8, 2021 to get a higher number (403/403). (There are some higher numbers since then, but they represent two or more days.) New non-resident cases = 29.
There were about 9900 tests and our Test Positivity is down slightly to 7.1. That means 7.1% of people tested were positive.
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 - No deaths reported. That's the good news. Though if that's the good news, the bar is low.
Four new hospitalizations reported, but on the hospital dashboard, we went from 114(10) yesterday to 123(7) today. The 123 is the number of COVID patients in the hospital, the (7) is a modified category. It used to be suspected COVID patients hospitalized. Now it's "positive and suspected COVID on Vent." In any case, there were 124 people listed as hospitalized yesterday and today there are 30, which is an increase of six, not four.
About 6600 tests. And Test Positivity went up >.25 to 7.26. That's the highest since Dec. 2, 2020 when it was 7.27. (See yesterday for more information on test positivity.)
Wear your masks.
Tuesday, August 10, 2021 - As much as I'd like to see things getting better, they aren't. One new death. 13 new hospitalizations. The hospital dashboard says 113 COVID patients hospitalized and 13 COVID and COVID suspected on Vent. I'm going to report these as 113 (13) hospitalized COVID patients.
241 new resident cases since yesterday. That's more than the new cases the State reported yesterday, but less than the 3-day weekend average. There were 21 non resident cases reported.
About 7800 tests. And Test Positivity is up to a 2021 high of 6.97. It was down (to 6.41) yesterday, but that was a one day dip.
As a reminder, here's what Johns Hopkins School of Public Health says about test positivity:
The percent positive is exactly what it sounds like: the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive, or: (positive tests)/(total tests) x 100%. The percent positive (sometimes called the “percent positive rate” or “positivity rate”) helps public health officials answer questions such as:
What is the current level of SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) transmission in the community?
Are we doing enough testing for the amount of people who are getting infected? . . .
How high is too high?
The higher the percent positive is, the more concerning it is. As a rule of thumb, however, one threshold for the percent positive being “too high” is 5%. For example, the World Health Organization recommended in May that the percent positive remain below 5% for at least two weeks before governments consider reopening. If we are successful in bringing coronavirus transmission under control, this threshold might be lowered over time. To further relax social restrictions and allow very large gatherings or meetings of people traveling from many different areas, for example, we would want a lower threshold."
Remember though, that defining "too high" is NOT arbitrary, but it's not some magic scientific number. It's more like an educated guess. Like when an experienced driver decides what the safe speed on the road is given adverse weather conditions.
Monday, August 9, 2021 - One new death (total now = 391). Three new hospitalizations. Remember these numbers cover Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 28 available ICU beds. (13 are pos and suspected on Ventilators.) [
812/185 - We're way off because it's Monday and I report three days and the state reports just one. There'd have to be about 315 cases for the other two days to get to the three day 812.
About 13,900 tests. Test Positivity dipped slightly to 6.41. That's good, but let's wait until there's a downward trend, not just a one day dip.
Friday, August 6, 2021 -
No new deaths. Four new hospitalizations.
113 COVID patients hospitalized. I put an asterisk on this number on the chart because I noticed new wording. Not sure if it started to today or earlier and I just didn't notice. It used to say something like 'suspected COVID' for hospitalizations. Today it says: "Currently on Vent - Statewide" on top, the number 12 in the middle, and on the bottom "COVID - Positive and Suspected." This is why I took screenshots when I started this, but I haven't been doing that and figuring out how to see yesterday's Dashboard is going to take too much time to check. Looking at earlier dates was never easy, but the Dashboard's did have a way to do it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
Thursday, August 5, 2021 - I have to admit, that while I think it's important for the State to post numbers every day, when it was down to three days a week I was appreciating not having to post.
Five new deaths reported today. That's eight in the last three days.
Four new hospitalizations. And there are six fewer COVID patients in the hospital - 114, 17 of those only 'suspected' COVID. Down one available ICU bed, to 38.
8300 tests, nevertheless, Test Positivity is back up to another 2021 high of 6.35.
My biggest concern is for the under 12 crowd. All they can do is wear masks and hope no one near them is breathing Delta virus on them.
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 - Mixed today, which means trends not as bad as yesterday.
One more death. Five new hospitalizations. Three more currently hospitalized - 120. A new 2021 high. Down eight available ICU beds to 39 in the State.
327/323 new resident cases. 15 more non-res cases.
About 7700 tests. Test Positivity is down to 6,01. This is a tricky number because it's a seven day running average which means the numbers change each day. When I looked at yesterday's number today it was 5.93 and the day before was 5.77. As I saw they change as the new numbers come in, but this seems to be a big change from 6.16 and 6.01 as reported before.
I don't check vaccine rates daily. We seem to be moving up very slowly. Statewide reported today is 52.6% for fully vaccinated everyone over 12 years od age. One or more doses is 58.1%. The Dashboard for vaccines shows by regions % of people over 12 who've had one or more shots. It ranges from 90% to 33% - here are some selected locations:
- 90% in Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula
- 79% in Juneau and in Yukon-Koyukok
- 68% in the Denali Borough
- 62% in Anchorage
- 50% in Fairbanks
- 48% in Kenai Borough
- 41% in Matsu
- 33% in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area
I can't find a similar list for fully vaccinated.
Tuesday, August 3, 2021 - Surprise! It's Tuesday. The State has only been updating the dashboards M-W-F. Today is the first Tuesday in a while. While that's a positive step, it reflects things have gotten serious again.
Two new deaths! One new hospitalization gets us up to 117 COVID patients in the hospital. (One is only suspected COVID.) That's the highest number in 2021 and the highest since it was 134 on Dec 19, 2020. We gained nine available ICU beds since yesterday. That's a plus.
269/283 new resident cases since yesterday. 26 new non-resident cases.
Just over 5000 tests. Test Positivity up to 6.16. Highest since Dec.11, 2020 when it was 6.5.
Monday, August 2, 2021 - Still going in the wrong direction, some stats not as bad.
No new deaths. Official numbers say no new hospitalizations on the cases dashboard. Hard to believe over a weekend. The hospital dashboard has the same number 116 as Friday, but they're are 98 verified COVID patients and 18 suspected. So I'm guessing some if not all the suspected cases are new cases.
There wee 703/226 new resident cases over the three days. So the State's 226 new cases numbers is pretty close to the three day average. There were 48 non-resident new cases.
About 13,000 tests over the weekend and Test Positivity continues upward - 6.01
Time to fall back on the old mask habits, stay away from other people etc. We're back in the thick of things.
Friday, July 30, 2021 - First the good news. Oh. There isn't any. Since Wednesday:
3 more deaths (five this week) but our new Anchorage health czar thinks the word pandemic is an adjective and a matter of opinion.
The cases dashboard adds up to 9 more hospitalizations, but the hospital dashboard says we now have 116 COVID patients (16 of them suspected). That's a jump of 20 since Wednesday and the highest number since December 19, 2020 when there were 134.
528/235 new resident cases. (My number is for two days, State's number for one day.) There were 47 more non-resident cases.
Not quite 11,000 tests and Test Positivity is up again to a new recent high of 5.65.
We're all stuck in a leaky boat in the middle of the ocean and 30% of the people in the boat think the best solution is to drill holes in the bottom to let the water out.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 - My book club, which met outdoors but in person in June for the first time since February 2020, is going back to Zoom for Monday's meeting. My daughter sent me cool new mask for my birthday. These are people who check the numbers and know what's going on.
After Monday's Test Positivity number dipped slightly Monday, today it's back up to its highest point since Dec 17, 2020: 5.55. And that's with just under 14,000 tests since Monday.
571/338 new resident cases in two days. (Just look at Monday's numbers for three days.) And there were 57 new non-resident cases in addition.
And two more people died bringing us to 379 Alaskans who have died of COVID. (That we know of. Probably more deaths were either directly COVID of COVID assisted.) By May 1, anyone over 16 could have been fully vaccinated if they wanted in Alaska. 37 people have died since then.
There were 27 new hospitalizations, but the total number of COVID patients is down one from yesterday's 97. (To 96 for those who have trouble with math.) And there is one less available ICU bed - down to 41 in the state.
Alaska Airlines, are you going to advance people's elite status one more year?
Monday, July 26, 2021 - New cases are up. 535/120 new resident cases. Mine (535 is from subtracting Friday's number from today's (Monday). It's three days' worth. The State's number is just one day and seems a bit low. The numbers also show 30 more non-resident cases since Friday.
Current COVID patients in the hospital is the scariest number - 97! (one is suspected COVID). That's the highest number since Dec 23, 2020 when there were 99. The highest number I have (I started tracking this on Nov 18, 2020 when it was 147), was 164 on Dec 5 and 7, 2020.
No new deaths. They list 12 new hospitalizations, but there are 24 more people listed as hospitalized. I think the hospitalized number is more accurate because hospitals keep current track of patients.
Good news? Test Positivity is down for the first time since June 28 (when it was 1.16). Friday it was 5.42 and today it's reported as 5.2. There were about 9400 tests over the weekend. Stay safe.
Friday, July 23, 2021 - Two new deaths! Odds are good they died because they didn't get vaccinated. Either they refused or they couldn't (hard to access or some condition that made it dangerous.)
10 more hospitalized. Yesterday we had the most since January 2021 and today we have three more Alaskans hospitalized. ICU bed availability is going down again. We were at 64 on June 30 and now were at 35.
423/239 new resident cases. My number is for two days, the state's number is for one - but they only put up the Dashboard numbers every other day. These are numbers from back when we went into lockdown.
About 14,000 tests and Test Positivity is up once again, though not as much this time. Up from 5.35 two days ago to 5.42 today.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021 - No good news today. Nada.
One death. Whoever this person was, could have gotten vaccinated and still be alive now. (I'm assuming this person was not vaccinated since everyone is reporting that people testing positive, getting sick, and dying are 99% unvaccinated folks.
Report says 11 new hospitalizations, but I think that's catchup because there is only one more COVID patient listed as hospitalized. But we're at 70 COVID patients in the hospital. That's the highest since January 15, 2021. Over six months ago. ADN had an article that said 66 people were hospitalized with COVID in Israel. Israel's population (9 million) is about 12 times Alaska's population Eight fewer available ICU beds, down to 36 in Alaska.
437/218 new resident cases. That takes us back to Monday, April 26, 2021 when we had 439/83 cases over the weekend (3 days, and today's number is for only two days.) The State's one day number of 218 is just over half of 437, so that makes sense.
There were almost 10,000 tests and . . . sit down . . . Test Positivity is now 5.35! That's the highest since December 18, 2020 when it was 5.9. Spread gets down to almost nothing under 1.0. May 28 we got down to .99.
Wed, July 14 = 2.67
Fri, July 16 =3.52
Mon July 19 = 4.88
Today July 21=5.35
We had this beat in Alaska. But then those folks claiming vaccines violated their constitutional rights and others with their own excuses didn't get their shots. And DELTA, which we knew was coming, came.
It would be unfortunate, but I'd accept that these people are the ones getting sick enough to be hospitalized and in some cases to do. EXCEPT that about 5% of vaccinated people can also get COVID - fortunately not as severe. But they become carriers too. Many vaccinated people don't wear masks, even though they could spread the disease.
And the real heartbreak is the under 12 population who haven't been cleared for vaccinations yet. Most probably won't get very sick. But some will be hospitalized and a few will die. Because people won't get vaccinated. And this all traces back to Trump who got sick and got vaccinated, but called this a hoax.
Here's what I wrote on June 23, not quite a month ago when numbers were looking good:
"We're doing reasonably well. But with the DELTA and other future mutants, we could slip back into a new surge with about half the over 12 population still unvaccinated. This was posted on an DHSS site last week. While Juneau has reached the 70% level, Mat-su is a dismal 33%. There seems to be a pretty good match between vaccinations and political leanings."
Monday, July 19, 2021 - The only 'good' news is no new deaths. Everything else is up.
Subtracting today's total hospitalizations number from from Friday's we only get 2 new hospitalizations. But if we look at the currently hospitalized COVID patients (what has regularly been a more accurate appearing number) there are 12 new hospitalizations getting us up to 69 (one is COVID suspected).
The last time we had that many COVID patients in the hospital was January 15, 2021 when we had 71!!!! That was when first responders were the only people able to get vaccinations. We've got 44 available ICU beds.
338/82 new resident positive cases since Friday. About 312 a day. There were also 21 new non-resident cases.
Test Positivity had one of its biggest jumps from 3.54 on Friday to 4.88 today. That's the highest since January 6, 2021 when it was 4.99. The highest it's ever been was 9.66 on November 12, 2020.
But we have to take the Dashboard numbers with a grain of salt. The Alaska DHSS twitter feed has different numbers.
Not sure why the department is so inconsistent with their reporting. This says over last two days - but their last dashboard post was Friday, so the numbers would be for three days - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday reporting. But they only show a difference in total cases of 338 cases.
And 167 + 187 =354 Maybe it's just bad math, not bad data. Or I think differently than they do.
Friday, July 16, 2021 - ADN's headline today highlighted the fact that fully vaccinated people were testing positive for COVID. You had to read the article - particularly the parts in the back pages - to learn that it was under 5% of vaccinated people - well within the predicted effectiveness level of the vaccines. So anti-vaxxers just reading the headline get their ignorance reinforced. It would be better if the headline read "99% of new cases are unvaccinated people" which was also only mentioned further down in the article. Irresponsible on the part of ADN editors.
Meanwhile, there were no new deaths, but there were 266/144 new cases since Wednesday. The last reports have been up sharply. The State's 144 is more than half, so yesterday was higher than the previous day.
There are five more people currently hospitalized than Wednesday, but at least the number of available ICU beds rose seven to 46. But that includes more than COVID patients. The total number of Alaskans who have been hospitalized was 1665, which indicates errors somewhere since Wednesday it was higher - 1712.
Most alarming is Test Positivity. with about 7200 tests since Wednesday, positivity was up over 3.0 (3.52) for the first time since April 23!
Meanwhile the ADN front page was touting the Bear Paw festival and other events happening around town. I could take the view that the people getting COVID now are basically the unvaccinated and so that's their choice. But the unvaccinated also includes those under 12. The longer the virus can find human bodies to invade the longer it can mutate into ever more spreadable and deadly viruses. Doesn't mean it will, but Delta shows it's already happening. And my grandchildren are all under 12. The unvaccinated who have no valid reasons to stay that way are no different from drunk drivers. And I suspect a lot that them also believe the state has the right to restrict abortions. But not to require vaccinations.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021 - Continuing up. No new deaths. But 15 new hospitalizations There are now 52 COVID patients (three of those suspected) in Alaska hospitals. (We had gotten down as low as 11 on June 28.) Down 8 to 39 available ICU beds.
236/136 new cases since Monday. The State's 136 is supposed to be since yesterday, so we're back to over 100 new cases over two day.
Just under 10,000 new tests and Test Positivity is up yet again to 2.67. At this rate we'll be over 3.0 by Monday. (Actually sooner, but they don't post the numbers daily.)
Monday July 12, 2021 - Continuing in the wrong direction.
2 more deaths reported since Friday. Again, these may not have died in the last two days, they may have died before and the records only getting recorded now. Nevertheless, the vaccine is available to all Alaskans over 12, so these deaths are due to people not getting vaccinated. And it's the highest number I've got recorded since May 5 when we were dropping fairly quickly.
180/23 new cases since Friday. My number comes to 60 per day since Friday. So the State's number, if only reflecting since yesterday, seems too low.
Just under 10,000 new tests since Friday. Test Positivity is up for the sixth day in a row to 2.5. Again a troubling indicator. East and West Aleutians are 0%. Nome = 0%. Northwest Arctic = 0% Copper River 0% Juneau 1% SE Fairbanks =1% Matsu = 2%. Anchorage is 3%. Bethel is 4% Kenai= 4% Yukon-Koyukuk = 6% Denali =7% Chugach = 15% There's more, but this gives you an idea of the range. The numbers are here. It's clunky to use - you have to select a region on the left. Then you have to uncheck all but one location.
If you take the total hospitalization numbers from Today (1697) and Friday (1694), there were only three new hospitalizations. But the currently hospitalized number has gone from 27 Friday to 43 today. That's a to more than three more.
Friday, July 9, 2021 - Our direction has definitely changed. We're going back up.
Two new deaths reported today for a total of 370 Alaskans. Note, reported doesn't tell us when they happened. We don't know if it was in the last two days or ta while ago and that stats are just catching up.
There were 14 new hospitalizations. 27 COVID patients are hospitalized in Alaska. There are 48 ICU beds available in Alaska. That's a reasonably high number for the time I've been following it. But it could drop if hospitalizations spike. That number is also affected by non-COVID patients.
You know that most of the hospitalizations lately are of unvaccinated people. Not only are these people risking themselves, they're giving the virus time to mutate into ever more contagious and severe versions. AND they are endangering all those under 12 who haven't been approved yet for vaccination. And they're using up medical facilities and the patience and time or health care workers unnecessarily. Most of the kids will probably have slight or no symptoms, but a number of them will get sick enough to be hospitalized. But the anti-vaxers really don't seem to care about anyone but themselves. It's like a bunch of are in a big rowboat trying to get to shore, but part of the group insists on jumping up and down and rocking the boat.
117 more people tested positive in the last two days. Nearly 60 a day.
But what concerns me most is that Test Positivity was reported at 2.43. That's the highest number I have (there were days when the numbers weren't available) since April 30, 2021. There were about 6600 tests since Wednesday.
Wednesday, July 7, 2021 - We've got five days worth of data today.
The good news: no new deaths. I didn't calculate the new hospitalizations because of conflicts with the previous two posted figures for total hospitalizations - June 30 was 1668 and then July 2 was only 1619. Assuming June 30 was correct (it was consistent with previous posted figures) then there have been 12 new hospitalizations since last Friday. There are 23 (one of those is suspected) COVID patients in Alaska hospitals.
There were 296 new cases since Friday, close to 60 a day. While that's still under 100, we did have some days under 50 in the last month.
There were about 12,300 new tests and the most troubling number is Test Positivity - 2.24. There had been at least16 days below 2.0 including a .99. This means more people are testing positive for every thousand tests. Not a good sign.
When I taught, I learned that many students were done with their capstone projects before the capstone project was done. The same thing seems to be happening here. People are done with the virus, but the virus isn't done with them.
Tuesday, July 6, 2021 - The State's policy of not posting updates on weekends made some sense. After all, workers need a break, though I'm not sure how long it would take to post the basic dashboards. Different people could do different days and you can do it from home. Maybe the problem was gathering the data in the first place. I don't know.
But then they moved to posting only three days a week. On this schedule, when there is a three day weekend, it means they only post twice a week. And with our numbers starting to inch back up, this seems like the information is being unreasonably withheld from the public. Let's see what we get tomorrow.
Friday, July 2, 2021 - Again the numbers have obvious unexplained anomalies. There are 49 fewer total Alaska hospitalizations than on Wednesday. There are just under 200,000 more tests than Wednesday when 2000-8000 is the normal range. And even with that huge number of tests (obviously not correct) Test Positivity went up by .3 to 1.54. the highest since May 21.
No new deaths. 99/48 new cases since the Wednesday report.
19 COVID patients currently in the hospital. 47 available ICU beds.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021 - We dropped some time ago, then we stayed steady. We seem to be inching back up. It's not over. Three more deaths reported today. (Doesn't mean they were in the last two days, but still, folks. Get vaccinated and/or mask up until we get past the Delta strain.)
12 more new hospitalizations! A total of 15 COVID patients currently in the hospital. There are 64 available ventilators in Alaska, which is an improvement.
79/48 new resident cases since Monday. That's almost 40 per day.
About 7200 tests since Monday. Test Positivity up to 1.24.
Monday, June 28, 2021 - We're continuing about the same. No new deaths. There's conflicting data about hospitalizations on different dashboards, neither seem quite right. One dropped the number down about 50 again, the other stayed the same at 1656. There are 11 COVID patients reported in the hospital and ICU bed availability is up to 50.
82/16 cases over the weekend. That's under 30 a day average, so the 16 from the State from yesterday is reasonable.
Almost 10,000 new tests and Test Positivity is down to 1.16.
Friday, June 25, 2021 - No new deaths. 52 new hospitalizations. But wait. Look at Wednesday's numbers. This has to be correcting an error. 19 COVID patients currently in the hospital. 40 ICU beds available.
39/40 new resident cases. State number doesn't make sense to me. Mine is for two days, theirs is for one day. The Wednesday total cases was 68,179. Subtract that from today's number - 68,218. Comes to 39.
About 7000 tests since Wednesday. Test Positivity down a bit too 1.33.
The State now has lots of information up, including information of the different virus strains. There were nine Delta cases. That's the one that spreads faster. Have a good weekend.
Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - Odd numbers today. The total tests is nearly 200,000 lower than Monday, but also 100,000 lower than May 28, 2021 which was the last time (before Monday) that the test dashboard worked for me. Also on one DHSS website it says there are 1,652 total hospitalizations. But on the cases dashboard, it says 1,602.
But on the cases dashboard, it says 1,602. This is all made harder to figure out because there aren't dates on the dashboard. But the other numbers match so they seem to be from the same day. I'm going with the 1,602 number because that's what they had Wednesday and 50 more hospitalizations would be way too many. And Monday's numbers was a lower number(1602) than the previous Friday (1650). I'm guessing there was an error somewhere and this all reflects making corrections, but one dashboard was still on the old data. Just a guess.
The dashboard says there are 15 hospitalized COVID patients in Alaska and one suspected. (I combine the two on the chart.) There are 38 available ICU beds. A drop of 13 from Monday.
67/47 new cases since Monday. A reminder that they are now posting numbers Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So my number (67) reflects two days and presumably the 47 represents one day.)
The testing number - as I mentioned at the beginning - makes no sense. Again, making corrections is the kind of explanation they've used in the past. Test Positivity is up - to 1.49 from 1.2.
Meanwhile there is a new death reported today. Number 367.
We're doing reasonably well. But with the DELTA and other future mutants, we could slip back into a new surge with about half the over 12 population still unvaccinated. This was posted on an DHSS site last week. While Juneau has reached the 70% level, Mat-su is a dismal 33%. There seems to be a pretty good match between vaccinations and political leanings.
Monday, June 21, 2021 - Good news - the hospital and testing dashboards are now working and accessible again.
No new deaths. It's been ten days since we moved up to 366. The total hospitalized figured went DOWN from 1650 Friday to 1602 today. I'm guessing they were catching up on bad data. There are 10 COVID patients in the hospital and one more suspected of COVID. 51 available ICU beds.
There were 81/13 new COVID cases since Friday, and, give the state's number, 13 new ones since yesterday.
There were 83,115 new tests since I was last able to see the total testing numbers on May 28. On that day we'd gotten below 1.0 Test Positivity (.99). Again, haven't see that data since May 28. Today's report said 1.2. Still pretty good, but we need to be below 1.
Friday, June 18, 2021 - No new deaths. Six new hospitalizations since Wednesday.
95/39 new resident cases since Wednesday. Twelve COVID patients are currently in Alaska hospitals.
I'm ready to stop tracking these numbers already, but there's still the chance that with only about 49% ofAlaskans vaccinated, and with new and more spreadable variants, and with people no longer wearing masks or using caution, there's a good chance the numbers will start going back up. Hoping that won't happen. But will hang in here a little longer, even though I can't seem to track all the numbers I was tracking before because of changes the state made to the dashboards.
Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - I skipped Tuesday's update because the state now only updates Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays since the numbers are going down. I hope they continue going down and I can stop this altogether soon.
But some of today's numbers look like catchup - mainly the new hospitalizations. The difference between today's total hospitalizations and Monday's is 54, which seems high. Especially since only 15 are listed as currently hospitalized. (I was combining the confirmed and suspected hospitalized numbers so that skews things down a bit.)
No new deaths. 51/26 new resident cases. That makes sense because my number is for two days and the State's is for one day.
Monday, June 14, 2021 - New cases dashboard working, but get error messages still at the hospital and testing dashboards.
No new deaths. Two new hospitalizations. 63/19 new cases, my number over the weekend, State's number since yesterday.
It's disturbing that while many people are rejoicing that this is over, people are still going to the hospital and dying with COVID.
Friday, June 11, 2021 - The main dashboard has some new numbers. The case dashboard also. Hospitalizations and Testing dashboards still have error messages. So these numbers are since Monday. An accumulation of new cases and deaths and hospitalizations over four days. So take that into consideration.
Four new deaths. Seven new hospitalizations. 125/18 new cases.
Thursday, June 10, 2021 - When I googled Alaska DHSS COVID I got a page with this message:
"DHSS website outageThe Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) website is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Critical COVID-19 information – including vaccine appointment scheduling and the data dashboards – is still available online. For information about the DHSS website and contact information for programs, please visit the DHSS website outage page."
The page isn't dated (sigh).
Wednesday, June 9, 2021 - The old dashboard now tells us there are changes.
Did I miss those words the other day? If so, that's why such changes should have a more eye catching visual. Do you see the announcement?
Tuesday,June 8, 2021 - No post because when I go to the state dashboard, I get Monday's numbers. The hospital and test dashboards still give error messages.
Monday, June 7, 2021 - The cases dashboard is working agin, but the testing and hospital dashboards still just have error messages instead of data. But the case dashboard has great news.
50/8 new resident cases since Friday. That's and average just over 16 per day - we haven't been under 20 per day since June 24, 2020. No deaths, And three hospitalizations over three days. All good.
Friday, June 4, 2021 - This is getting frustrating. When I checked Friday the new numbers weren't up. And for the previous couple of days, only the cases dashboard gave me numbers. The hospital and testing dashboards gave me error messages. I've got an email in for that. But I saw today (Sunday) that I never got back Friday. Today ALL the dashboard now want me to sign in before accessing the dashboards. There's no way listed how to do that. But, from the home dashboards - with links to all the others - I got some numbers for the Friday update.
No new deaths. 57/? new cases. 20 people hospitalized.
As the numbers get lower keeping up with this seems less urgent (though I hope that doesn't prove false) and I'm getting a bit less compulsive. Perhaps that's also affecting DHSS employees who update the dashboards. The weather's been beautiful and being outside beckons.
Thursday, June3, 2021 - Still having trouble with the test and hospital dashboards.
No new deaths. Three new hospitalizations.
50/44 new resident cases.
Wednesday, June 2, 2021 - Again, the test and hospital dashboards give me error messages.
No new deaths, 7 new hospitalizations (for those who think COVID isn't serious, there are still more people being hospitalized.)
34/84 new resident cases. The discrepancy between my numbers and the State's seems to balance off (roughly) the difference yesterday in the opposite direction. 34 is a very decent number (in the context of previous numbers only).
Tuesday, June 1, 2021 - No data over three day weekend and today the hospital and test dashboards give me a data error.
No new deaths and only two new hospitalizations reported since Friday. 104/49 new resident cases reported. The 104 number is over four days, so it averages out to 26 per day. Better numbers than we've seen. The 49 is presumably since Monday, which is much higher than the average. I don't have an explanation.
Friday, May 28, 2021 - For the first time since I've been recording Test Positivity (started July 21, 2020) Alaska's score is below 1.0. .99 to be exact. But then exactness is probably something these numbers are not. There are lots of variables, missing data, etc. So don't take it too literally. But assuming they've been gathering the data roughly the same way every time, this is definitely good news.
New resident cases is an example of how rough the data are. Yesterday that state reported 67,357 new resident cases. Today they report 67,403. So Today - Yesterday = 46. But the state says there are 88 new cases. That's why I report my number and the state number every day. Today, 46/88.
The state also reports two new nonresident cases, but the total number of nonresident new cases yesterday and today are the same - 2805.
Also two new hospitalizations. But there are three fewer COVID patients hospitalized (17) and seven more available ICU beds (37). But that number includes all patients, not just COVID.
Thursday, May 27, 2021 - Basically today's numbers look good. No new deaths and two new hospitalizations bringing current COVID patients in the hospital to 20. There are only 30 ICU beds available (and 93 being used, but not necessarily by COVID patients, obviously since there are only 20 COVID patients in hospitals now.
40/43 new resident cases. Under 50 is going in the right direction.
About 7100 tests. Test Positivity is down to 1.06. So close to getting under 1.0.
Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - We're still in better territory than we've been in a long time, but the decline is still interrupted by steps backward.
No new deaths. Two new hospitalizations. Current hospitalized patients up two to 18, but still a low number. Number of free ICU beds is down 14, but this has to be due to non-COVID patients.
65/66 new residents cases. Up from yesterday, but we're still under 100.
About 7300 tests. Test Positivity down a fraction to 1.12. Getting so close to 1.0.
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - News is still good. No new deaths. Only two new hospitalizations. Total COVID patients currently in the hospital is down to 16. Yesterday's 20 was the lowest number since I began tracking this back in November! Available ICU beds up to 49.
53/38 new resident cases. Not sure why the State and I are so different. Probably residual from the weekend. New non-resident cases weren't updated.
About 3700 tests. Test Positivity at 1.13. They changed how they report this. It was by percent (1.13) and now it's decimal (.00113). Or maybe I accidentally changed something on that dashboard.
I'm assuming the vaccine is playing a big role here. We had guests out on the deck for lunch today. All of us fully vaccinated. Very nice.
Monday, May 24, 2021 - Reminder, there are no Saturday or Sunday posts because the state doesn't update over the weekends. But this is one of the better days in a while.
No new deaths. No new hospitalizations. (Not sure the latter is true, but that's what's posted. The last time there were no new hospitalizations was February 24, 2021. We also have only20 currently hospitalized COVID patients. Again, the lowest number since I began tracking that number on November 18, 2021. That day there were 147 new hospitalizations. There are 39 available ICU beds - but it would seem most ICU beds are being used by non-COVID patients.
92/21 new resident cases. 92 is for the weekend, the state number is for one day as I understand it. But a three day average of under 30 is great!
About 13,600 tests over the weekend. The Test Positivity level is 1.14 - again the lowest number since I started tracking Test Positivity on July 21, 2021. It was 2.3 then.
Friday, May 21, 2021 - It seems I updated the chart yesterday, but not the entries here. Ah, yes, now I remember. There were no numbers up for non-resident cases so I was waiting for an update that never came.
No new deaths. One new hospitalization - up to 24 COVID patients currently in the hospital. (I say currently, but these numbers today represent what was yesterday. Confusing?) One more available ICU bed (41).
64/63 new resident COVID cases. About 5900 tests. Test Positivity 1.68. We've been stuck between 1.0 and 2.0 for over a week now. That's better than we've been for a while, but we need to get below 1.0 before all the opening up and non-mask wearing starts pushing us back up again.
Thursday, May 20, 2021 - I'm doing this on Friday. The non-resident numbers weren't up Thursday and I didn't get back to this. No new deaths, four new hospitalizations for a total of 23 COVID patients in the hospital. There were 40 available ICU beds.
80/78 new resident cases. About 6400 tests. Test Positivity was 1.69.
Wednesday, May 19, 2021 - No new deaths. 3 new hospitalizations. 26 COVID patients currently in the hospital. Same as yesterday, but probably not all the same people. 39 available ICU beds, up seven from yesterday.
96/95 new resident cases. Still under 100, but not by much.
About 5200 tests. Test Positivity remains under 2.0 at 1.68. Waiting for the day that we're under 1.0 and there are under 10 new resident cases.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 - People who think no one is dying of COVID any more should think twice. There were 11 deaths reported yesterday (I'm sure they are over a longer period of time though) and three more reported today. In Alaska.
But, 53/52 new resident cases. We're slowly moving downward. Three new hospitalizations, two more people currently hospitalized - 26. Available ICUs went down to 32.
About 4000 test, and Test Positivity went up to 1.69. Fighting off mosquitoes in Denali, so that's all.
Monday, May 17, 2021 - Deaths apparently updated - 11 reported - but otherwise pretty good news. 131/50 new cases over the weekend. That's an average a fraction above 40 a day. Best we've been in a long time. 11 new hospitalizations over the weekend. But only 24 COVID patients in the hospital now. ICU bed availability is down to 38, but that may well be due to non-COVID patients.
AND with about 10,000 tests over the weekend, Test Positivity is down to 1.47. That's a week under 2.o.
Friday, May 14, 2021 - Back up over 100 new resident cases: 109/108. BUT Test Positivity continues to decline, slowly. To 1.54 today on about 6900 tests.
No new deaths. Four new hospitalizations - those are people, real people, who are so sick they're afraid to stay home. Imagine, you're sick. Weak. Having trouble breathing. You really don't want to go to the hospital. But you're gasping for air. Your family members, roommates, are alarmed. Kids are scared their parent might die. Maybe they drive you to the emergency room. Or maybe they call an ambulance.
Some version of that happened to four more people yesterday. It's not some abstract theory. 347 Alaskans are dead from COVID. 1536 have been sick enough to go to the hospital. There are 35 people in the hospital now with COVID. That's four fewer than yesterday. But there are also nine fewer ICU beds available - only 43. But those aren't just four COVID patients.
And remember, each patient takes resources - money, health care workers, equipment. Even if you or your close friend/relative don't get COVID, you could be hit by a drunk driver, or have some other medical emergency and hospital staff will be stretched thin and exhausted and you might not get the care you expect.
Thursday May 13, 2021 - Mostly the same-ish. 77/81 new resident cases. No new deaths. Seven new hospitalizations. 39 currently in the hospital with COVID. That's two less than yesterday. And one more available ICU bed - 52.
About 7600 tests. Test Positivity down slightly to 1.67.
Wednesday May 12, 2021 - The good: Test Positivity is down to 1.69. There were about 5500 tests.
The not so good: 84/83 new resident cases. It's good that we've stayed below 100 for a couple of days, but we aren't steadily declining. Also there were six more hospitalizations, with 41 COVID patients in the hospital now in Alaska. That's not a good experience for anyone. There are 51 available ICU beds.
The ugly: Four deaths have been reported in the last two days - two yesterday and two more today. Yes, Alaskans are still dying of COVID, yet 32,000 Anchorage voters cast their ballots for a pandemic ignorer.
Tuesday May 11, 2021 - Mostly good news today. Except, two new deaths reported. Perhaps that's just a late review of death certificates, not something that happened yesterday.
57/58 new resident cases. We were 53/56 on February 23, 2021 and again back in September 23, 2020 we were at 54/56. So, this is a big deal.
We had about 4000 tests and Test Positivity is again at 1.76 (the seven day rolling average no puts yesterday at 1.79. We've been under 2.0 three times now since Thursday.
But there are still 41 COVID patients in Alaska hospitals. Our available ICU beds is at 50.
We're moving in the right direction.
Monday May 10, 2021 - Today's numbers reflect the accumulation since Friday. Best news is that our Test Positivity is below 2.0 again - 1.76. When it's under 1.0 carriers of COVID will be infecting only one person each. There were some 27,000 tests since Friday.
230/43 new resident cases. The average for the three days was 76. So if the State says 43 since yesterday, Friday and Saturday's numbers would have averaged a bit above 90. But still under 100.
No new deaths. 12 new hospitalizations since Friday. There are 42 COVID patients in the hospital now and 47 available ICU beds.
Friday May 7, 2021 - I checked several times for the numbers yesterday, and then ultimately, I must have forgotten altogether. Reconstructing the numbers is tricky. And my numbers from Wednesday May 5 show only 112 new cases (for two days) but the State lists 114 since yesterday. So my "new' numbers are between today and Wednesday.
One new death. 2 new hospitalizations. 46 folks currently in the hospital because of COVID, 48 available ICU beds.
About 13,500 tests since Wednesday. Test Positivity is 2.02. (This is one number I can reconstruct for past days (sort of). It was under 2 yesterday at 1.94! YEAH! But I say 'sort of' because those numbers are a seven day running average, so even though 1.94 is listed today, that isn't necessarily the number that was up yesterday.
Thursday May 6, 2021 - Whoops. I checked yesterday and the numbers weren't up yet. It appears I forgot to check again.
Wednesday May 5, 2021 - No new deaths, three new hospitalizations. There are four fewer COVID patients currently in the hospital, and three more available ICU beds.
146/144 new resident cases. Test Positivity is up slightly to 2.15. I was hoping we'd get below 2.0. But it didn't happen.
Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - Not bad today. No new deaths, fewer than 100 new cases, and Test Positivity down a bit more.
Nine more hospitalizations, but three fewer COVID patients currently in the hospital. Up twelve to 45 available ICU beds.
84/94 new resident cases.
About 4500 tests, and Test Positivity so close to 2.0 - 2.09. Can we get below 2.0 tomorrow. That would be a big step.
Monday, May 3, 2021 - Glad you found the new page. It's 2:40 pm and there aren't any new numbers up yet.
3:50pm - One new death (342 total). Four new hospitalizations (1494 total). But the number of current hospitalized COVID patients is the highest since January 17 (64) - three and a half months ago - at 65 (five of those are suspect COVID patients.)
269/69 new cases. My number includes three days' reports for an average of about 87 per day. That's three days under 100. We haven't been under 100 (by my count) since April 6.
About 17,200 tests (over three days) with a test positivity of 2.19. We haven't been that low since March 9. A good sign if we continue down. Under 1.0 is the goal. California is a 1.1 so we have no excuse. (Remember that these COVID links get updated daily, so that number will be different if you check on a day other than today.)
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