Alaska reports 456 coronavirus cases over the weekend as hospitalizations rise - Anchorage Daily News

A recent and significant resurgence of COVID-19 in Alaska continued over the weekend, with state data showing 456 new cases reported since Friday plus an uptick in hospitalizations, causing the state to return to a high alert level for the first time since May.

Joe McLaughlin, Alaska’s state epidemiologist said Monday.

By Monday, virus-related hospitalizations in the state had surpassed a previous surge in May.

While many of Alaska’s recent hospitalizations have been concentrated in Anchorage, in the more rural Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of the state, three hospitalizations were reported in the past two weeks, including two patients currently in the hospital.

The vast majority of Alaska’s cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been among Alaskans who were unvaccinated.

Alfrey said the rise in cases and hospitalizations in the state is concerning — and that hospital capacity is being further strained by regular staffing shortages, plus an uptick in non-COVID, trauma-related hospitalizations that typically happen during the summer in Alaska.

Health officials have partially attributed Alaska’s recent rise in cases to the more contagious delta variant first identified in India in December.

Other factors for the rise in cases likely had to do with Alaskans feeling more comfortable gathering together indoors, McLaughlin said.

He said the best tool Alaskans have to bring cases back down is to increase the number of people who are fully vaccinated in the state.

“If you’re not yet vaccinated, please consider getting vaccinated as soon as possible,” McLaughlin said.