COVID-19 cases in Alaska took a big one-day jump with 13 new cases reported, the most since late March.
Seven of the new cases were diagnosed on the Kenai Peninsula, while Anchorage had four cases, Juneau and the North Slope each had one new case.
The jump followed several days when only one or two cases were reported each day.
There have been a total of 425 cases in the state, with 366 of those now recovered.
No additional deaths were reported; 10 Alaskans have died of conditions related to COVID-19.
There are 10 people currently hospitalized who have the infection, but there are no Alaskans on ventilators, according to the state’s reporting.
The State’s Chief Medical Officer Anne Zink advised last week that as the state opened up the economy again there would be clusters of the coronavirus that medical professionals and epidemiologists would have to investigate and try to contain.
Why so many cases down on the Kenai? Out of State folks coming in? Perhaps a test prior to boarding a flight to Alaska should be required? Just wondering out loud here.
4 in Anchorage isn’t too far out of character given recent history, and one here and there in other areas is to be expected. But a sudden 7 on the Peninsula is certainly an aberration.
Question is, why there? What do those 7 have in common? I’m assuming it will take a couple of days for that to become known.
CBSNews should have waited a few days! They could then honestly report a one day spike in the 7 day average of official new cases in Alaska of 109.1% as reported by Alaska DHSS!
As the economy opens up, and especially as people disregard the precautions we will almost certainly see more and more cases. Sooner or later we will see a small Alaska village be devastated by this foreign virus. This is the cost of “getting the economy back up and running.” Except for Red Chinese government leaders no one is to blame, and there is no better answer. From now on, if you buy anything made in China then you are part of the problem, and likewise if you sell anything to China. I DO NOT recommend yielding to temptation to lean across the hood of your pickup with your .243 at Ted Stevens and picking off the crew that emerges from a Chinese 747 freighter; it’s the Chinese dictatorship that is directly responsible. That 747 crew is even more disadvantaged than we are.
I’m a little more hopeful about our ability to weather this, but I’m right with you on who’s to blame: China. I would add the caveat that, while not the cause, certain of our political class and media have made it worse. That said, if we are smart, I think we can get through this and protect those at risk (our elders and our rural populations) while not crushing completely what is left of our economy.
That would be bit of an overreaction, LOL. Especially since the virus is far more widespread than previously thought, which has pushed the death rate way down to flu levels, and the real death rate is even lower since we’re finding many deaths have been attributed falsely to Covid-19. Deaths from things like falls and gunshot wounds have been attributed to Covid-19.
It isn’t the terrifying monster it seemed like back in March with all the horror stories coming out of Italy.
People flying in for fish processing jobs? They are undergoing mandatory testing.
Most blacks don’t wear masks here in Florida
Were any of these new 13 cases hospitalized or were they all asymptomatic? More testing will result in more cases & if most of these new cases are asymptomatic it is good news as it will continually lower the death rate of Covid 19 which has already been downgraded to about .26%, a far cry from the original doomsday prediction of between 3% to 5% from the CDC. Before the “experts” on here start pontificating about how social distancing & self quarantine is responsible for lowering the CDC prediction, be aware that their computer models back in March did, in fact, factor in those mitigation methods. They were flat out WRONG!
I am speculating here, but what if these 7 cases originate from just one family? That makes a lot of sense. It probably isn’t a BIG SCARY. Like: “Oh my gawd there are seven Typhoid Marys traveling in every direction in Alaska coughing and sneezing on innocent citizens as often as possible… those villains!” Which to me seems to be what chronic doomsday thinkers automatically assume. It’s probably a small group of tight knit people who share a lot of air, locked in one building together, where the MAJORITY of infection spread occurs. Hence the asinine nature of the “Lock Down” which ensures that all members of a household will get sicker faster. What one must remind oneself of, is that for centuries we have recognized the importance of fresh air and sunshine in healing and preventing disease. Even current research on COVID-19 shows that UV radiation (from sunlight) rapidly destroys COVID-19 on surfaces. Viruses can’t survive direct sunlight. Proven fact, COVID-19 included. So here’s some more rational policy based on research (not!). Close all playgrounds and public parks, discourage trail use. Tell everyone to wear a facemask outdoors so they can continue to REBREATHE the same air they came out of their house with… and tell everyone that THIS policy is based on the “real science” without actually citing any science at all. Good one, policy makers! Nothing to see here, folks. Since this is what the actual research says, one might want to consider the facts before quacking in fear of doom, death, and destruction over seven cases.
Given the same curiosity, I tried to do a little digging.
All those new cases in the Gulf Coast region looked really suspicious to me. The others could just be noise, but it’s hard for us to tell. The 4 cases in Anchorage is not significantly out of band.
7 new cases were reported in the Gulf Coast region for the day in question. That seems significant. If they were all in the same family, we’d expect them to be in the same city. But they’re not…according to a DHSS press release, these 7 included 2 in Homer, 1 in Kenai, 1 in Nikiski, and 3 in the remainder of the KPB. (2 more were added to the region today, 1 day later…).
That tends to not support the single family theory. Maybe it does include some seasonal fishing workers (all of whom are supposed to be tested upon arrival). There’s just not enough information to substantiate the idea though.
The number of tests did start to ramp up in the last week or so; hospital-based testing has undergone a noticeable increase.
The seasonal out of state workers who are in Alaska and test positive are tabulated separately from Alaskan residents, for some reason DHSS thinks that is how to be transparent. By not counting seasonal out of state workers who are in state and covid positive with the rest of the population, how is that being transparent?
I hate to ruin a good rant, but the cases on the Kenai weren’t from a small group of people locked away in a one room dwelling, they were from Homer (2), Kenai (1), Nikiski (1), Kenai Peninsula Borough (3). Carry on.
More people are being tested for the RNA sequence hence called corona virus testing, so it is expected the numbers will go up. Try not to run into fear with numbers meant to keep us afraid of living our lives! Get outside and breathe fresh air! Life is for the living and each day we worry unnecessarily we take the joy out of the day!
13??
Oh my goodness, shut down the state.
Quick, everyone jump off a bridge while you still can.
There is literally no way to test for COVID-19. The CDC and the FDA have admitted this in the Accelerated Emergency Use Authorization Summary.
“Positive results do not rule out bacterial infection or co-infection with other viruses. The agent detected may not be the definite cause of disease.”
Ergo, there is no COVID-19 test.
Citation, please! I’d love to be able to re-use this!
Milton – I don’t allow links here. -sd
You can find it at the fda website. Suzanne keeps removing my citation so youre on your own for this one. Hopefully she will leave this one up. go to the fda mainpage and then after the “.gov” paste this in there – /media/136151/download
The spike in discovered cases on the Kenai will be used as a justification by Mayor Berkowitz to shut down Anchorage. I am not kidding.
It perhaps should be noted that the Kenai Peninsula is quite large. Nikiski to Homer is 90 miles
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