By Clarion staff
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reported 394 COVID-19 cases Friday, and another 447 new cases Saturday. The state also reported five new deaths — four on Friday and one on Saturday.
The Kenai Peninsula reported 79 new cases between the two days, with the majority reported on the central peninsula.
The statewide alert level — which is based on a daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000 people, is high at 43.14 cases per 100,000.
According to state data, as of Saturday the Kenai Peninsula ranked third-highest in the number of cases per 100,000 — 42.71 cases. Only Anchorage Municipality and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region rank higher.
The total number of Alaska resident cases is 15,274 and the total number of nonresident cases is 1,081.
As of Saturday, there had been 82 deaths related to COVID-19 and 441 hospitalizations. Eleven new hospitalizations were reported Saturday. There are currently 94 people hospitalized with COVID-19 — 76 patients are diagnosed with COVID-19 and an 18 additional patients are under investigation for the disease.
Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 8.73%.
The state’s average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 7.3%. As of Saturday, 604,207 tests have been conducted statewide and 20,115 tests had been conducted in the previous seven days.
