247 active COVID cases in the region

By Peter Loewi
Following days of strong winds and inclement weather, COVID-19 cases appear to be down from previous weeks’ counts, but Mark Dr. Peterson caution and said, “we will see an increase in that.”
As of Tuesday, Feb. 8, there are 247 active cases in the region: 84 in Nome, 35 in Savoonga, 33 in Gambell, 26 in Shaktoolik, 19 in Unalakleet, 14 in Shishmaref, 13 in Elim, eight in Teller, five in Koyuk, four in Stebbins, two in Golovin, two in St. Michael, one in Brevig and one in White Mountain.
Dr. Peterson, medical director at NSHC, regularly reminds participants on the Tribal Leaders COVID Call that case numbers appear lower over the weekend because not as much testing is done. Then, when more testing is done, the case numbers are more accurately reported. A similar issue occurred this week as strong winds throughout the region shut down village clinics and many hospital functions in Nome. The Cough and Cold Clinic was open, but transportation options were limited.
People with COVID-19 symptoms who were unable to test should quarantine until they are able to do so.
While the CDC guidance is to wear a mask up until day 10 after exposure, Dr. Peterson said it is a good idea to keep wearing a mask at work and in public places after those 10 days.
On Tuesday, Feb. 1, Norton Sound Health Corporation identified 96 new COVID-19 cases in the region. Of those, 25 were in Savoonga, 21 in Nome, 15 in Elim, eight in Brevig Mission, seven in Unalakleet, six in Shishmaref, five in Shaktoolik, four in Gambell, two in St. Michael, one in Golovin, one in Koyuk and one in Teller. This led to 311 active cases in the region: 82 in Nome, 48 in Savoonga, 43 in Unalakleet, 31 in Elim, 21 in Teller, 20 in Shishmaref, 18 in Brevig, 17 in Gambell, 13 in Shaktoolik, seven in Koyuk, five in St. Michael, three in Stebbins, one in Diomede, one in Golovin, and one in Wales.
Then the high winds struck. Between Wednesday, Feb. 2 and Thursday, Feb. 3, NSHC identified 78 new COVID-19 cases in the region: 19 were in Shishmaref, 18 in Nome, 17 in Savoonga, 11 in Elim, three in Golovin, three in Stebbins, three in Wales, one in Koyuk, one in St. Michael, one in Shaktoolik and one in Unalakleet. This dropped the number of active cases in the region to 266: 78 in Nome, 43 in Savoonga, 29 in Shishmaref, 28 in Unalakleet, 27 in Elim, 11 in Shaktoolik, 10 in Brevig Mission, 10 in Teller, eight in Gambell, six in Koyuk, five in Stebbins, four in St. Michael, three in Golovin, three in Wales, and one in Diomede.
Over the weekend from Friday, Feb. 4 to Sunday, Feb. 6, there were 111 new COVID-19 identified by NSHC cases in the region: 40 were in Nome, 24 were in Shaktoolik, 13 were in Gambell, 10 were in Unalakleet, seven were in Shishmaref, five were in Koyuk, three were in Elim, two in Golovin, two in Stebbins, two in Teller, one in Brevig, one in Savoonga, and one in White Mountain. Following the stormy weather, this dropped active cases to 148 in the region: 61 in Nome, 18 in Savoonga, 17 in Shaktoolik, 13 in Shishmaref, 11 in Gambell, eight in Unalakleet, six in Elim, four in Koyuk, four in Stebbins, three in Golovin, one in Brevig, one in St. Michael, and one in White Mountain.
On Monday, Feb. 7, NSHC identified 178 new COVID-19 cases in the region: 35 in Nome, 22 in Gambell, 22 in Teller, 20 in Savoonga, 19 in Unalakleet, 16 in Shaktoolik, 13 in Shishmaref, 12 in Brevig, 11 in Elim, three in Stebbins, two in Koyuk, two in St. Michael and one in Golovin.
On Wednesday, February 2, state health officials reported the first pediatric deaths due to COVID-19, two infants from the Anchorage and Matanuska-Susitna Borough. “They were from a while ago but the death certificate process caught up and is now out,” said Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Anne Zink.
The process release information on COVID-19 related deaths takes time. Once a physician has determined the cause of death, they send a death certificate to the Health Analytics and Vital Records section at the Division of Public Health. This data is center to the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics, where the data is encoded. The encoded data is sent back to the State office, and sometimes updates or corrections are made.
This announcement comes just a day after Pfizer and BioNTech submitted their clinical trial data on a COVID vaccine for children ages 6 months to 5 years to the Food and Drug Administration for review. The FDA advisory panel will meet on February 15 to vote on whether the benefits outweigh the risks. If the answer is yes, the FDA will authorize the vaccine and then send it to the CDC advisory panel for recommendation. In the event of a yes, the CDC director will choose to endorse the decision, after which the vaccine will be available to the public. In the case of vaccines for children ages 5-11-years old, this process took around a month. Since November, when the vaccine became available to 5- to 11-year-olds, 52.1 percent of children in the Nome Census Area have received their first shot, according to DHSS data.
Scientists are still trying to figure out if the Omicron variant is affecting children more seriously. While individual risk of a child being hospitalized is lower than when Delta was the dominant variant, children make up a greater proportion of hospitalizations than during previous waves, according to the scientific journal Nature.
Another issue that has been worrying doctors and parents is the risk of MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. MIS-C appears several weeks after a child, usually aged 5-11, has had COVID, and they develop symptoms which can’t be attributed to anything else. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, these symptoms include feeling week or dizzy, red eyes, a rash, adnominal pain, diarrhea or vomiting and confusion. While MIS-C is rare, the increased transmissibility and impact on children is worrying. The CDC reports 6,851 cases of MIS-C resulting in 59 deaths of children across the country. Through December 2021, the Alaska Division of Public Health reports 20 cases in the state. None of the cases were fatal, but all required hospitalization, and half were in intensive care units.
While it appears to cause less severe illness in able-bodied people, the Omicron variant is still too new to rule out the possibility of it causing Long COVID, where symptoms last for months or longer.
As of the morning of February 8, 2022, since the pandemic started the U.S. has had 76,852,768 COVID-19 cases and 905,543 COVID-related deaths.
Alaska has had 220,388 cases, 3,478 hospitalizations and 1,060 deaths. There are currently 127 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 hospitalized and four additional patients who are considered persons under investigation for a total of 131 current COVID-related hospitalizations in Alaska. Six of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 13 percent, according to the state DHSS.
The Nome, Bering Strait and Norton Sound region saw at least 4,332 cases, had 37 hospitalizations and 3 deaths.