The number of omicron variant COVID-19 cases is increasing nationwide, but state health officials said Thursday none had yet been identified in Alaska.<\/p>\n
“We know a lot about COVID, we were expecting this,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, during the state’s weekly update. “We continue to learn from around the world.”<\/p>\n
The number of COVID-19 cases in the state had dropped by 27% from the previous week, according to Zink, and some regions of the state had decreased their overall COVID-19 risk levels.<\/p>\n
Information about the variant is still coming out, Zink said, but existing tests are able to detect the virus. President Joe Biden announced a plan Thursday to greatly expand access to at-home testing kits, which the City and Borough of Juneau began doing on Nov. 10. At-home test kits will only show that a person is positive for COVID-19, Zink said, not which variant they may have.<\/p>\n
Zink also encouraged Alaskans to get flu vaccines during the winter months.<\/p>\n
Hospitalizations are declining in Alaska, Zink said, but hospitals are still full of patients, both COVID-19 and otherwise. Bartlett Regional Hospital has reported no COVID-19 patients for the past several days.<\/p>\n
State data shows the state reaching its highest levels of hospitalizations in late October before sharply declining. Data on vaccine immunity to the omicron variant is still coming out, Zink said, but said Alaskans should get vaccinated or receive booster shots for COVID-19.<\/p>\n
“Imperfect protection is better than no protection at all,” Zink said.<\/p>\n
Just over half of the state is fully vaccinated and 57% —which now includes children age five and older — and 61% of eligible Alaskans have received at least one dose, according to state data. In Juneau those numbers are even higher. According to the City and Borough of Juneau, 71.7% of the city’s total population is fully vaccinated and the city is preparing clinics for a second round of pediatric vaccinations.<\/p>\n
Health officials have stressed the limited data on the variant and a Nov. 28, update from the World Health Organization<\/a> said understanding its impacts could take weeks. It is unclear whether the omicron variant causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants — including the delta variant — according to the WHO, and there is currently no information to suggest that symptoms are different from those from other variants.<\/p>\n