As Alaskans spend more time indoors, the cases of COVID-19 are on the rise. Another 526 cases of coronavirus were reported on Sunday in Alaska, adding to over 355 cases announced on Saturday, for a total of 881 new cases this weekend.
In comparison, new cases of the coronavirus in Washington was 919 on Friday. The population of Washington State is over 7.6 million, more than ten times that of Alaska.
The virus is also surging all across the Lower 48 states and in other countries.
The COVID-19 virus is spreading rapidly across nearly all regions of the Alaska, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.
The increase of positive cases is also due to an increase in testing in many communities and greater efforts by the Division of Public Health to enter backlogged case data.
“We’re doing all we can, with the full support of our governor, to respond vigorously to this increase in cases,” said DHSS Commissioner Adam Crum. “While DHSS provides support to Alaska’s communities, we’re also asking all Alaskans to step up their COVID prevention efforts to help flatten the curve again.
There are 58 Alaskans currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and a total of 68 deaths associated with the virus since it arrived in Alaska in March.
Older Alaskans and those with certain medical conditions or weakened immune systems, such as those undergoing cancer treatment, are of concern.
Crum said the vast majority of today’s cases are younger than age 60, but “the saturation of the virus in the community increases the likelihood that our vulnerable populations such as older Alaskans or others at risk of severe illness will be infected, and these are the groups we are especially trying to protect. This won’t last forever, but right now we are asking all Alaskans to come together and slow this community spread and protect the most vulnerable among us.”
Additional recent support to Alaska’s communities includes:
- Additional testing: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has sent 50 new Abbott ID rapid testing machines to Alaska that will be distributed across the state. These rapid tests will be used for emerging case clusters and to protect congregate settings such as homeless shelters, long-term care facilities, correction facilities, schools and workplaces.
- Public Health Nursing support: Public Health Nursing sent a strike team that responds to outbreaks to Bethel this weekend to assist with testing, contact tracing and community education.
- PPE and testing supplies: On Friday, the DHSS warehouse shipped 1,400 pounds of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing equipment to Bethel. That shipment includes gloves requested by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Heath Corporation. The DHSS warehouse is also continuing to ship PPE and testing supplies throughout Alaska.
- Alternate care sites: Hospital capacity is still holding steady, but the State continues to maintain the Alaska Airlines Center alternate care site. Hospitals continue to maintain their on-campus surge capacity and offsite alternate care sites. Norton Sound Health Corporation is establishing a new alternate care site.
- New personnel and additional contracting help: The Division of Public Health, along with procurement and human resources, are continuing to hire contact tracers and data entry personnel and to purchase critical PPE supplies. Additional testing contractors are also being brought on to ensure accessible and affordable testing throughout the state.
Show us the case count vs. testing count, and then we might know more. The rise in cases may be due to no more than that, and there may not be any rise at all. The Pandemic, as planned, was designed to require Total Testing. The CDC protocols are ineffective, except as a tool to shutdown our way of life, which was the goal all along. So doubling down on what doesn’t work against the virus only continues the crushing of our society. Masks, total testing, and contract tracing are as bad as it can get ! Protecting at risk populations make some sense, but only 20% of the People are going to contract this disease anyway, and if they would use the means available, virtually everyone can be cured. So where is the medicine ? And why isn’t it available ? Treat sick people and get on with life ! Stop the fear mongering …
The reported tests are behind by a few days, but here’s the total tests by day. https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/daily-testing-summary/data?orderBy=Date_Collected&orderByAsc=false
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More important than the number of tests taken per day is the positivity rate, how many positive tests based on percentage. That has been climbing and the seven day rolling average is above 5%, that’s not good. https://coronavirus-response-alaska-dhss.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/statewide-testing-positivity/data?orderBy=Date_Collected&orderByAsc=false
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Many people get scared when facts are involved, but we should use facts to inform us so we can make rational decisions…pretending this isn’t happening simply is not rational.
From what I read in the ADN article the positivity rate is about 6.32% which is up from the approximately 4% from a month or so ago. So positive rates are up.
I wish more in-depth reporting was being done to provide data on the symptoms of those infected; minor, serious, asymptomatic, etc.
I’m so sick of all the fear mongering.
A positive test without symptoms is not a case. The PCR test is total BS with over 90% false positives.
It sure enough is. Just because someone is not having symptoms doesn’t mean that they are not contagious and can give it to somebody that in fact has symptoms after the contact.
Educate yourself about the PCR. It is NOT a test. It is a process, a polymerase chain reaction.
The intended use of the PCR was not as a diagnostic tool to detect viruses. High CQ values (cycle quantification) values make the test results even more meaningless. If the Cq value gets too high, it becomes difficult to distinguish real signal from background, hence the high incidence of false positives, or “symptomless carriers, according to the fake news media propaganda.
Detection of viral RNA does not necessarily indicate the presence of an infectious virus. Even the instruction manuals for the use of PCR state that it is not intended as a diagnostic test:
“These assays are not intended for use as an aid in the diagnosis of coronavirus infection. For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.”
There was absolutely no reason for putting the entire world on lockdown. The numbers generated by these PCR “tests” do not justify frightening people who have been “tested positive” and then impose lockdown measures that force the world into poverty and despair.
A good read:
The great scandemic: Biggest and Deadliest Medical Fraud Ever Perpetrated on the Human Race
Hospital capacity was the original slow the spread reasoning. Our hospitals are fine. If lockdowns work, why do a second one???
We need to be honest with ourselves. Put aside the haughtiness of the medical folks and the local tyrants and their mass lock-downs. The truth is that absent locking ninety percent of the population in individual rooms, there is little that can be done to prevent the spread of Covid 19. We really haven’t learned much since the fourteenth century that will stop the spread of this disease. Keep your social circles small. Not exactly rocket science. Covid cases are on the rise and will likely continue to rise. Policies should be based on this reality. Perhaps more painful is the realization that a Covid vaccine may not be either effective or long-lasting. Remember the common cold? No vaccine, not much immunity, highly contagious. Covid is about the same, but hits some people much harder. This is unfortunate but largely uncontrollable. Time for sobriety.
Maybe we need to switch gears. Instead of everybody trying to prevent spread by wearing all kinds of masks, switch to those at risk or who so choose, start wearing N-95 masks. These masks filter out the virus for the wearer which, in theory, protects the wearer. But they allow unfiltered air to escape which doesn’t stop the wearer from exhaling the virus out if they have it. This might concentrate the emphasis on those who really do not want to contract COVID 19. Just a thought.
I’ve been wearing ninety five masks from day one. If fitted properly, they filter incoming and outgoing air .
The hospitalization rate & death rate compared to total positive tests is insignificant. There is nothing to panic about with this flu. We must demand criminal/civil consequences for those who are perpetuating this madness!
Great, just what would you charge Biden with?
There is a huge difference between a case and a sick person. Simply testing positive for the virus does not mean you are sick, or that you will be a burden to the medical system. It is possible that the viral burden of a positive test is so low that they individual testing positive will never show symptoms, nor will they ever become contagious.
Can anyone please tell me what is so horrific about this virus that any of the restrictions are warranted at this point?
No, 220,000 people did not die from the virus. They died with the virus. If you were to test everyone who died for common STDs you would find out that 80% of deaths were from fooling around. (If you use the same logic).
So, what exactly does this virus do that is so terrible that lockdowns, masks, and general panic are warranted?
Your logic is insane. Yes people died with the virus, but complications from the virus caused them to die. That’s like saying I had to chop my leg off cuz I had gangrene. No you had to chop your leg off because you got a splinter in it and it got infected and then you had to chop your leg off.
Thank you Greg. Well thought out response.
I disagree though. When, per the CDC study, the average person who died with the virus had 2.6 co-morbidities, I will say describing that as a death due to COVID-19 is disingenuous. When you have one foot in the grave already, any infectious disease could put you over the edge.
Where you amputate leg analogy fails is it does not take into account that some 94% of the deaths ascribed to COVID-19 happened to people with existing, life threatening health conditions. A healthy person generally does not get gangrene from a splinter and require amputation. They typically have underlying medical conditions that allow the gangrene to take hold.
What is insane is saying the virus is the cause of death when in fact other underlying medical conditions are much more likely to be the cause. Same thing with hospitalizations. 57 people in AK hospitals as of yesterday, yet how many of them were admitted BECAUSE of COVID? (I personally know someone who went in for a scheduled C-section, but tested positive at admissions, so she is a COVID hospitalization now.)
Perhaps you haven’t noticed, or perhaps you have not been looking into it, but across the nation all other causes of death have dropped off significantly. Generally there are dozens of people dying from pneumonia and other respiratory failures every day, but as soon as COVID showed up, those numbers almost zeroed out. Same with heart failures, etc… Please check into it. It is amazing how few people are dying from the top five causes of death, and they all seem to be dying from COVID.
By the way, do you have any info on what is so horrific about this virus that these restrictions are warranted? You seem knowledgeable about it, so perhaps you can help me out with that inquiry.
We don’t care about how many people are carrying this virus, no more that we care about the common cold viruses, the flu viruses or any other virus. This is a first, to go nuts over a virus that has proven to be nearly insignificant to almost all the population. The cure is worse than the disease, exponentially.
This is a scam. Here in Juneau they advertise non stop on the radio to go get a free test. They stay open for long hours over weekends. We had a huge backlog of tests which they threw all those in as well. Guess what? Record positive cases. Reality? The numbers for those hospitalized has not changed. I think we have 3 or 4 people hospitalized right now and they fail to mention other ailments these people suffer from. PLEASE READ: There is a new mandate by the state which sends all new tests to California to a lab called Fulgent Genetics. Its a for profit lab that charges people’s insurance companies for testing costs.
It’s just not possible for all these positive rest results! The sheep have been convinced to wear face coverings.
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If masks are as effective as we are being told, why the spike?
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Either masks are not as they are sold, or test results are largely false.
Say…..maybe masks are the cause!
LOL.
Stop. Getting. Tested.
Stop getting tested unless you’re unconscious, required to keep you income, or ordered with force by the government. Let the chips fall where they may if it comes to that.
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