Five new cases of COVID-19

By
Suzanne Downing
-
15

Alaska gained 5 new known cases of COVID-19 since Sunday. That brings the total to 119 positive cases in Alaska, and no new deaths since the three that have already been announced.

Two of the new cases were in Anchorage, two in Fairbanks, and one in Palmer. The total number of people who have been tested in Alaska is 3,713. Seven of those afflicted by the virus have been hospitalized.

The number of new cases has dropped when compared to recent days. Two days ago, 19 new cases were announced, while 12 new cases were announced on Sunday.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink said that over weekend the State received an additional 60 ventilators. Alternative care sites are being set up in Anchorage at the Alaska Airlines sports center on the University of Alaska campus, with 150 cots in place now for those who need medical monitoring, and she is working to create those centers in as many as 18 other communities.

The total case count for Monday, March 30:

  • Anchorage: 61, up from 59 on Sunday
  • Fairbanks/North Pole/Interior: 30, up from 28 on Sunday
  • Mat/Su: 3, up from 2, which had been stable for three days
  • Ketchikan: 13, no change
  • Juneau: 5, no change
  • Kenai Peninsula communities: 7, no change

15 COMMENTS

  1. 3% of those tested have the virus, 0.18% need to go to the hospital, and 0.05% die. But we are gonna crash the State’s economy into the Greatest Depression? Insanity! How many will die from drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide due to mental depression brought on by the economic depression?

    • So using your numbers, if we test the whole population, 3% would be about 22,500 that have the virus.
      …wait, can’t use your numbers because they’re off.

      7 out of 119 is not 0.18%, it’s 5.9%.

      So, 5.9% of 22,500 is 1328 hospitalized.

      3 of 119 is 2.5%

      And 2.5% of 22,500 is 563 deaths.

      But.

      We all know that for those tested, there are likely many more carriers than we are aware of because we have tested such a small sample of our population.

      Additionally, as with all the data generated around this virus so far, there are many many variables our crude projection does not account for.

      The contagion is not static, it’s not done exponentially expanding its reach and as it does so, (as demonstrated in all other evident and clear examples we have to compare), this contagion will soon outstrip our puny efforts to shrink it down to a simple set of numbers that cannot represent the reality that is sure to come.

      No matter how much we wish we could control it with our calculator or our pencils, it’s got a mind of it’s own, so to speak, and greater minds than ours have been working on it for months and not solved it yet.

      The economy doesn’t take precedence over our health, if we lose our health, we won’t be able to drive any economy. We won’t have to worry about the economy, we will be looking for someone to care for a crippled and decimated population.

        • It’s pretty elementary math, the simple equations I demonstrated are the same results you’ll find on our state health bulletins and the federal information websites.
          I’m not ‘fear-mongering’, I’ve presented a very real reality.

          You can’t just turn basic math on it’s head and expect you’re going to reflect any kind of real projections.

          Don’t stick your head in the sand.

    • Amen to that statement. This is a serious situation and every reasonable precaution should be taken, but I truly don’t think most people envision the incredible harm that will be done if our economy is totally crushed. We already will be facing a very different city, state, and country on the backside of this. Many restaurants and small business simply will not survive this. It was “easy” to shut things down, but it will be much harder to open back up for business. We started shutting the state down with 1-3 cases. Using that extreme logic, when do we open back up?
      Unfortunately we are now facing a perfect storm of bad impacts- low oil prices, a weak economy in general, and now we will be losing tourism and possibly fishing.

  2. With healthy spread out populations and the ability to test with results within minutes coming available. We may want to consider enhancing the protections on the vulnerable, while allowing the less vulnerable to get back to normal. I hope the new test will show all those who have recovered and are immune to the condition like 80%. The 80% should be allowed to get back to the normal routine with precautions. As we continue to only find 3% or less it is imperative that we get back to normal. More sun less virus…Also have the drugs on had to treat the early stages in the vulnerable so they never have to have a ventilator…One drug is effective for early detection and the other drug is more effective when the chronic Pneumonia sets in. Time to bring some since into these more rural areas that will not have the major impact like the folks that live in high-rise apartments. Additionally We may have peaked at 19 seems we are going the other way.

    • Search Results
      Web results

      Coronavirus test: Covid-19 immunity testing can help people get back to work.. SO THEN LETS TEST ALL ALASKANS and get Back to work…

      “Everyone staying home is just a very blunt measure. That’s what you say when you’ve got really nothing else,” Emily Gurley, an associate scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told NPR. “Being able to test folks is really the linchpin in getting beyond what we’re doing now.”

      In particular, serological tests, also known as “immunity tests,” for antibodies to the virus could reveal the true extent of the pandemic and help scientists answer basic questions about Covid-19 and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2: How many people have been infected with the virus? Who may have spread it without knowing it? Why do some people have mild illness while others become gravely ill? How deadly is the disease? What tactics are actually working to slow its spread?

      Serological tests could also potentially allow people who have immunity to return to work. That could be a huge boost to front-line health workers who may have been exposed to the virus but are desperately needed back in action.

      Countries are now racing to acquire more of these tests. The United Kingdom ordered 3.5 million serological tests. Germany is considering using these tests to issue immunity certificates to people who have survived Covid-19. Companies and labs are jostling to develop robust serological tests in the US as well; one company, Henry Schein, says several hundred thousand of its tests will be available March 30.

      6 things to know about the coronavirus testing disaster in the US
      But scientists are also still learning how long immunity from Covid-19 can last and whether there is a chance that people could be reinfected. Filling in these blanks will be critical to the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Let’s walk through what we know.

      Serological tests can reveal who has defeated Covid-19 and may now be immune
      In patients who have recovered from Covid-19 or may have carried the virus without realizing it, a serological test can show who carries antibodies, even if the virus is no longer present. Antibodies are proteins that help the immune system identify and eliminate threats. Once they’re made, they help the body neutralize future infections from the same threat.

      Establishing who is immune is important for figuring out who can safely return to work. For example, health workers are facing staffing shortages as Covid-19 spreads through their ranks, and serological tests may soon become necessary to keep hospitals and clinics running.

      FOLKS this can be done fast, now how much does a short test like this cost?

      • health providers would have to order an additional $40 cartridge, about the size of a replacement ink cartridge for printers, specifically developed to pick up genetic signatures of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Most insurers have pledged to cover the cost of the test, which is about the same price as the ID NOW test for flu, without additional costs to patients who qualify.

  3. MIT chemists have designed a peptide that can bind to part of the coronavirus spike protein, which they hope may prevent the virus from being able to enter cells.
    In hopes of developing a possible treatment for COVID-19, a team of MIT chemists has designed a drug candidate that they believe may block coronaviruses’ ability to enter human cells. The potential drug is a short protein fragment, or peptide, that mimics a protein found on the surface of human cells.

    The researchers have shown that their new peptide can bind to the viral protein that coronaviruses use to enter human cells, potentially disarming it.

    https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-experimental-peptide-block-covid-.html

  4. Mr. Mongo, a strong economy requires confidence, and not until this thing is defeated will that return. There really is no middle ground, and it’s very tough to say to people, “Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner. We want you to keep spending because there’s maybe a politician who thinks GDP growth is all that counts”. Even Trump sees the light now, after weeks and months of denial, and the vast majority of Americans are in favor of distancing and lockdown.

    100-200,000 people in the US will probably die because of this virus, and many, many more if we don’t act in the right way. Yes, there may be a time where we finally give up and let it rip, but that time is not now.

    It’s time to set your Libertarian ideas aside, fall in line with the rest of the country, and hunker down. I, too, wish that life was less unfair.

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