By Clarion Staff

The state announced 21 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday — 14 of them residents and seven nonresidents.

Alaska’s total number of resident cases is 792. There have been an additional 136 nonresidents.

After a prolonged spike in new cases announced daily on the southern Kenai Peninsula, Homer and the surrounding area have not seen more than a few new cases in the last week.

As of Wednesday, the total cumulative case totals for the peninsula were: 38 in Homer, 28 in the “other south” category, 17 in Soldotna, 14 in Kenai, eight in Anchor Point, five in Nikiski, four in Seward, three in Sterling, three in Fritz Creek and one in the “other north” category.

The categories “other north” and “other south” are used for people in communities with fewer than 1,000 people.

Of the peninsula’s total 121 COVID-19 cases, 86 have recovered, two have died and 33 are still active.

The 14 new resident cases announced by the state Wednesday are residents from the Municipality of Anchorage (eight), the Fairbanks North Star Borough (three), the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (two) and the Ketchikan Gateway Borough (one).

Of the seven new nonresident cases identified, four were reported in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, with two in the mining industry, one in a visitor, and one in other industry. In Anchorage one case was identified. No industry was identified. In the combined Bristol Bay and Lake and Peninsula boroughs one case was reported in the seafood industry. One case was reported in Kodiak Island Borough. No industry was identified.

Of the state’s total COVID-19 cases, 507 people have recovered so far, according to data on the state’s coronavirus response hub website. There have been 12 deaths associated with the illness and 64 total cumulative hospitalizations of people with confirmed cases of COVID-19.

As of Wednesday, there were 16 people being actively hospitalized, either for confirmed cases of COVID-19 or suspected cases. The state has conducted 96,096 tests. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous three days at 0.71%.