Another Alaskan has died with COVID-19 as the number of active cases among residents again reaches a new high, state health officials reported Tuesday.
Additional details about the person who died were not immediately available. Alaska Public Media has reached out to the state health department and will update this story when it has more information.
The report of another death follows a recent spike in Alaska’s number of new COVID-19 infections, and warnings from Anchorage city officials that its system for investigating cases has maxed out. The state health department is also continuing to call on Alaskans to wear masks, wash their hands and social distance.
“Alaska is seeing a surge in cases with the number of infected Alaskans now outpacing recovered ones, plus a new high in COVID-positive hospitalizations yesterday,” the department posted on Facebook Tuesday morning.
The state on Tuesday reported 19 new COVID-19 cases among Alaska residents. A dozen of them are from Anchorage, two are from Wasilla and there is one each from Eagle River, Kenai, Cordova, the Yukon-Koyukuk area and Ketchikan.
The state is also reporting four new infections among nonresidents. One is listed as a tourist in Seward. There are two in Anchorage and their reasons for visiting are not listed in the state’s database. A fourth person’s location is listed as unknown.
Another four Alaskans have been hospitalized with the disease, according to the state. And there are 25 people in the hospital with COVID-19 or who are suspected to have the disease.
By the end of the day Monday, the state tallied 1,184 infections among Alaskans since March, and 560 of them have recovered. About 20% of those infections were in Alaskans in their 20s and another 20% were in Alaskans in their 30s — the two age groups with the most infections.
“The COVID-19 outbreak is far from over,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy wrote in a Facebook post Monday night.
The latest death brings the total number of Alaskans who have died with COVID-19 to 17, according to the state’s data. At least four of them died out of state. One of the out-of-state deaths may have been misattributed to Alaska because of incorrect information on a death certificate, The Juneau Empire reported.
A total of 131,420 COVID-19 tests have been administered in Alaska — up about 3,000 from Monday’s report.
Across the country, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases is again on the rise. Alaska continues to have one of the country’s lowest case counts per capita.
