8 new cases, total of 147 of COVID-19 in Alaska

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DR. ZINK SAYS HOMEMADE MASKS MAY BE GOOD FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

Today’s coronavirus count in Alaska went from 143 statewide to 147, a gain of eight cases.

The reason the number is not 151, which it should be mathematically, is that the State Department of Health and Social Services has changed the way and the timeframe it is reporting on cases; they are now reported through midnight, rather than through 3 pm, as they were earlier. Some cases would have been counted twice due to the change of the timeframe.

Hospitalizations went from 9 to 13 today. Gov. Mike Dunleavy today said that 5,530 Alaskans have been tested as of today and there are no additional deaths attributed to the virus, beyond the first three already announced.

Alaska is among the top 10 states for testing per capita in the country. Two percent of the tests coming back are positive, said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer. Alaska has the fewest cases of any state, she said. The numbers announced today are probably those of people who acquired the virus two weeks ago.

STATE LAUNCHES COVID-19 DASHBOARD

The Alaska COVID-19 Dashboard is designed to provide Alaska-centric data, including geographical data using information provided by local hospitals, commercial labs, and state labs. The dashboard connects Alaskans with federal and community partner websites and will be continuously updated.

“I thank our DHSS data team, epidemiology team, and lab team for helping to make this information-filled dashboard a reality as we continue to provide transparency of all data available,” Zink said. “We understand this new look may take time to get familiar with and encourage Alaskans to check back in the coming days and weeks as we continue to make updates and changes.”

“The interactive Alaska COVID-19 Dashboard provides the public with the latest data while keeping in mind the confidentiality and sensitivity surrounding each individual case,” Dunleavy said. “I thank my team for standing up this tool so quickly and for their ongoing work as we navigate this pandemic together.”

NEW INFORMATION ON ‘SIX-FOOT RULE,’ FACE MASKS

Zink said that the current recommendation of six-foot distance between people is the minimum, and that people need to give as much space to others as possible because there is increasing evidence that droplets of the virus can linger in the air, especially in places where people are coming in and out of a lot, such as grocery stores. She said to think of “at least six feet,” and to stay out of places where there is a lot of in-and-out traffic.

She recommended using shopping delivery services and limiting your amount of time in stores.

ZINK also said that while a homemade surgical-style mask may not protect you from someone else who is sick, there is evidence that a homemade mask can prevent the spread of the disease because people can be asymptomatic spreaders of the disease. She said people should consider wearing a tightly woven homemade mask.

Slide from Dr. Anne Zink on personal protective gear shipped to health care organizations.

Eleven pallets of personal protective gear have been shipped to Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Zink said.

Zink said without social mitigation, there could be up to 11,000 deaths in Alaska from COVID-19.

In the state’s current modeling, Alaska is not shooting up in cases, the way it occurred in Washington State. The social mitigation efforts are working, Dunleavy said, encouraging Alaskans to keep their distance because they are making a difference in helping the state medical community prepare for an uptick in cases that is expected in the next couple of weeks.

22 COMMENTS

    • If we had thermal scanners at the airports, we could cut down on most of the sick people traveling. But we have no legal right to stop them from getting on the airplane and making everyone else sick? And the news people won’t write about this, even MRA………….. And I have asked her to write about it. Not yet. The hospitals, oil companies and now McDonald’s are using the thermal scanners like the rest of the world. But not state and federal governments.

    • Wait until the commercial fishing community arrives from the PacNW and starts hacking on locals in our rural communities. Dutch, Cordova, Valdez, etc. will be hammered.

  1. “Zink said without social mitigation, there could be up to 11,000 deaths in Alaska from COVID-19.”
    “Social mitigation” is an interesting choice of words.
    This statement is pure speculation and not a scientific fact.
    I would venture to say that with N95 masks for everyone and “social distancing” this virus would quickly be put to bed.
    Now, with a projection that 50,000 jobs will be lost in the next two months (do to government mandates) I am thinking that someone should have thought of stockpiling masks for all Alaskans instead of wasting billions on a gasline that never occurred?

    • Steve, please keep the sophomoric smarty pants comments to a bare minimum. I get your sentiment about gasline expenditure, but how is it relevant to what the good doctor is recommending? Thanks in advance Steve.

  2. I’m not an epidemiologist, but I’m ok at Math.. it seems like Alaska is handling this well. It Could be a ton of factors moving that needle but whatever the reasons it gives us some hope we can get out of shutdown mode and back to work hopefully sooner than later!

    • I agree with Lawrence. 5503 people were tested only 151 have the virus at this time.
      Doing the math that is about 3% of those tested were positive. Alaska’s population is 737,438 we are not even close to 1% of the state population.

  3. Good luck getting Alaskans to wear masks.

    .

    It’s their Constitutional Right to die drowning in their own fluids.

    • If it were the flu then you might be right. It’s not the flu. People are getting reinfected. It’s scarring their lungs. Going about as if it doesn’t exist is an excellent way to overrun the hospital and wind up with a 20% death rate in the initial wave. How many 1 in 5 waves do you think civilization can sustain?

      .

      Also, once rapid testing becomes available health departments will be able to do patient tracking and targeted quarantining. All this shutdown is doing is buying us time.

  4. we need more context
    what percentage of our population are currently hospitalized with the virus?
    what percentage of our pop have died of the virus?
    of the totals who have been confirmed sick with the virus, how many have survived? Gotten well. and thus no longer susceptible to the virus? immune?

    all we get now is the number of new cases and the number of dead – but no context

    then let’s compare that with other illnesses in AK per month/year/
    and the number of dead, etc.

    • Do you know why we don’t know? Inadequate testing. And then there are people walking around with the virus 50 days after being tested. THIS IS NOT THE FLU! You may not develop an immunity. How many people have recovered from HIV/AIDS?

      .

      Think Captain Trips on a delay timer. Multiple strains? Mutations? The first step to taking Xi’s little helper seriously is to stop thinking in terms of flu/cold viruses.

      .

      • And stop thinking it’s Xi’s little helper.

        I know it’s easy to want to affix blame, but the DNA science, and studies by the ones to know, shows it was not man-made.

        Affixing blame to China works to further some prejudices, but it’s not a reflection of any physical evidence.

    • The last number on the state dashboard is 9 cumulative patients hospitalized in the entire state. I think that means the total that have been hospitalized, and the current could be less if some were discharged or died. As of last evening, there was one positive Covid 19 patient at hospitalized Providence Alaska medical center in Anchorage

  5. Can we please start hearing about the stats for those numbers who have contracted it and have gotten better?? Instead of constantly blasting how many have it daily, can we see the number that has gotten it and Lived? Side by side I wanna see this :
    New cases
    Those that have died in state
    And the number of the ones who have gotten it and recovered successfully.. Because that number is way higher. Not everyone dies from this. It would really help morale in general not waking up and seeing negative things every am… People need to see that folks survive this and the numbers behind it.. Many many do and it’s not talked about or plain left out … … Just a suggestion.

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