Six new cases of COVID-19 in four Alaskan communities

KMXT received this press release on March 24, 2020. It is posted here with minor editing. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clinton Bennett, DHSS, (907) 269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov

Six new cases of COVID-19 detected
March 24, 2020 ANCHORAGE — The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) today announced six new cases of COVID-19 in four Alaska communities – Fairbanks (2), Juneau (1), Ketchikan (2) and Sterling (1). All of these new cases were in adults. The Juneau case was travel-related, and two other cases (Fairbanks and Sterling) were acquired from close contacts. The remaining three cases are still being investigated.

Today, DHSS also announced the first COVID-19 case to be hospitalized and the first Alaska resident to have died from COVID-19. The decedent was a resident of Southeast Alaska who died on March 16, 2020, in at a health care facility in King County, Washington after a prolonged stay there. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this case is counted as an Alaska fatality, even though this individual was not infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 in Alaska and also died out of state.

Case count updates are made daily to coronavirus.alaska.gov by 5 p.m. daily and reflect cases reported as of 3 p.m. that day. Find more information about how to keep yourself and your family healthy at coronavirus.alaska.gov.