Buckle Up Buttercups: Covid Weekly Case Update

The Covid weekly case update is out and it's a truly stellar read. Weekly updates reflect data from the previous week.

According to the report, multiple hospitals in Anchorage were at maximum capacity on July 17th and 18th due to high volumes of both COVID and non-COVID patients, which means the hospital status pages people are known to frequent during upticks in Covid transmission had it right.

Reportedly, healthcare staffing has been strained at Anchorage Native Medical Center, Providence, and Alaska Regional. According to an emergency room nurse at one Anchorage hospital, "Crisis Pay" is being offered to some staff.

Crisis pay is additional pay that is offered to workers when they are needed to work extra hours.

The report says that 882 cases of Covid-19 were reported in Alaskans last week—a 140% increase from the week before and that while increases in the number of cases were widely distributed across Alaska, notable increases in Anchorage, Mat-Su, Sitka, and other locations were observed as well as an increase in the number of hospitalizations.

The report identified 56 more highly contagious Covid-19 Delta variant cases, which is now the predominant strain found in Alaska.

On Twitter, Alaska Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink wrote that it was "highly likely" that the Delta variant of Covid-19 was "substantially contributing to the increase in cases" around Alaska.

Discussion about breakthrough infections—those vaccinated against the virus and who were infected with Covid-19—has been a hot topic of conversation on social media. According to the weekly update, from January 1–July 17, 2021, two deaths, 28 hospitalizations, and 948 cases resulting from a VB infection were reported among Alaska residents.

The report notes that the counts are provisional and subject to change as more data are compiled.

In that same time frame, a total of 23,529 cases, 562 hospitalizations, and 86 deaths were reported.

"96% of all cases, 95% of all hospitalizations, and 98% of all deaths to date were in unvaccinated people."

You can read the weekly case update here, and you should also check out the Covid vaccine website, where there's plenty of vaccine just waiting to be jabbed into your arm.

The Covid vaccine is the best defense against the highly contagious Delta variant.