Alaska continues to see high rates for hospitalizations, deaths, and positive cases. They were one of few states that opted for rationing medical care to those they believed would recover.
Daily cases have started to level off, but Wednesday saw record highs for hospitalizations. There were 567 new cases reported Wednesday as well as two deaths. One death was a man from Anchorage in his 70s and the other was a woman from Fairbanks in her 80s.
The seven day rate has decreased from its peak in Sept., but it’s still the highest state in the country and 5 times higher than the national average. The levels have apparently plateaued at a high rate.
Hospitals has 236 cases of COVID on Wednesday, higher than the record reported on Oct. 21. A quarter of all Alaskan hospitalizations are COVID-19 cases and most are unvaccinated.
33 are on ventilators and cannot breathe on their own. One of the reasons the hospitalization levels are so high is because of the length of time people are staying in the hospital.
Hospitals are slowly stabilizing despite high rates thanks to out-of-state healthcare workers. Elective surgeries and operations are still on the backburner as the healthcare system remains spread thin in the state. 20 hospitals are still in crisis standards of care.
In total there have been 690 Alaskan deaths in the state and 26 deaths of nonresidents in the state.
Right now 60.1% of Alaskans are fully vaccinated and 64.9% have had at least one dose.
Related: Alaska has three hospitals rationing healthcare to patients amid COVID surge
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