The Norton Sound Health Corporation has announced nine new cases of COVID-19 in Nome. Five of those were reported Monday morning and four were announced over the weekend. All of the patients are Nome residents.
NSHC reports two of those cases to be the result of community spread while six of the new cases are close contacts of previously confirmed cases. One of those cases is considered to be travel-related.
NSHC is also reporting new hospitalizations. Their weekly COVID-19 dashboard has increased the number of regional hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19 from three to five. The state dashboard from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services still only reports two hospitalizations for the Nome area. NSHC officials told KNOM that hospitalizations are reported after a patient is dispatched and that all of their numbers have been reported to the state.
Statewide, Alaska’s numbers of positive COVID-19 cases saw a slight decrease from last weekend. There were 1,173 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the state on Saturday and Sunday. That’s down from 1,679 statewide cases of COVID-19 the previous weekend.
However, Saturday saw the state’s largest number of reported deaths in a single day. The Department of Health and Social Services reported 18 new deaths related to COVID-19, with five of those being recent.
There are 16 active cases of COVID-19 in the Norton Sound region and all of those are in Nome.
Image at Top: Particles from the coronavirus. Photo in the public domain via Creative Commons
