Norton Sound Health Corporation has announced two regional residents tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. NSHC says one patient is from Gambell but did not say which community the other individual is from.
Earlier today, NSHC stated that the positive case in Gambell does not appear to be travel related. They did not offer any additional information about how the patient contracted the disease.
According to the regional health corporation, the other new case of COVID-19 in the Norton Sound is considered to be travel-related. At the time, on Friday, there were 16 total active cases in the region with 14 located in Nome and two in regional villages. Today, there are 11 total active cases in the Norton Sound.
NSHC says the State Section of Epidemiology and Public Health Nursing have been notified of the latest patients to test positive and will further investigate these cases.
While COVID-19 cases continue to climb, so do the number of vaccinations in the Norton Sound. According to NSHC, more than a third of eligible residents in the region have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine at this point. That’s roughly 3,200 people according to the latest update of NSHC’s data dashboard, who have gotten the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Those who have been vaccinated thus far significantly outnumber those who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Norton Sound. There have been 309 total positive cases confirmed during the pandemic. As of this morning, 298 are considered recovered while 11 are currently active.
Image at top: Particles from the coronavirus. Photo in the public domain via Creative Commons
