COVID case numbers in region hold steady

By Peter Loewi
COVID-19 boosters targeting the Omicron subvariant BA.4/5 have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The updated COVID-19 boosters are formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating COVID-19 variant. They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants. This recommendation followed a comprehensive scientific evaluation and robust scientific discussion. If you are eligible, there is no bad time to get your COVID-19 booster and I strongly encourage you to receive it,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in a press release last Thursday, September 1.
The “bivalent” vaccines target both the original wildtype of the virus as well as the Omicron subvariant called BA.4/5, which is currently circulating. With this update to the emergency use authorizations, the original mRNA vaccines targeting only the wildtype are no longer authorized for use as boosters in individuals over the age of 12.
Boosters are only for people who are more than two months past their last COVID vaccine, and some experts are reportedly suggesting waiting as long as four months if you aren’t at risk of severe disease. For those who have recently had COVID, the recommendation is to wait three months after infection before getting boosted. Anyone over the age of 18 is eligible for the Moderna vaccine, and anyone over 12 is eligible for the Pfizer BioNTech shot.
The bivalent boosters targeting BA.4/5 have not been tested on humans, but a bivalent booster targeting an earlier Omicron subvariant, BA.1, was tested, and original vaccine was given over 600 million times, for “an extraordinary record,” Walensky said in an interview with National Public Radio. “There are very subtle differences, but we have no reason to expect that this is going to have any different safety signal than either the 600 million doses we previously have given or these other bivalent boosts against Omicron,” she continued.
Boosters offer a bump to immunity which has waned over time, and the vaccines offer robust protection against severe disease and death. The significance of this is particularly striking following another recent CDC report which shows that life expectancy in the United States has dropped for the second year in a row. “Excess deaths due to COVID-19 and other causes in 2020 and 2021 led to an overall decline in life expectancy between 2019 and 2021,” says the report. The biggest drop in life expectancy in those years was in American Indian and Alaska Native populations, from 71.8 years in 2019 to 65.2 in 2021, a shocking 6.6 years. Life expectancy at birth in Asians is longest and dropped the least from 85.6 to 83.5, a decline of 2.1 years. COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the country in both 2020 and 2021. Heart disease was number one and cancer was number two.
Cases in Alaska dropped over the previous week thanks to a big drop in resident cases. Non-resident cases remain high, driven by tourists on cruise ships. Cases at sea among those with purpose of tourism made up close to 25 percent of all cases identified in the state last week.
While cases in the Nome Census Area are still in the “high” community level, Alaska no longer leads the country in current cases, the first time in months.

The week in numbers
On Tuesday, August 30, Norton Sound Health Corporation identified six new cases of COVID-19 in the region. Two cases were found in Nome, two cases were found in Teller, one case in Elim and one case was found in Savoonga. The number of active cases in the region sat at 31: Seven in Nome, six in Unalakleet, five in Savoonga, five in White Mountain, three in Elim, three in Teller, one in Brevig and one in Shishmaref.
On Wednesday, August 31, NSHC identified 11 new cases of COVID-19 across the region. Five of the new cases were in Unalakleet, two each were in Nome and Teller and one was found in both Savoonga and Shishmaref.
On Thursday, September 1, NSHC identified three new cases of COVID-19. Two were in Nome and one was in Unalakleet.
On Friday, September 2, NSHC identified two new cases of COVID-19, both in Nome.
Only one new case was reported over the weekend, on Saturday in Nome.
On Monday, September 5, eight new cases of COVID-19 were identified. Seven of the cases were in Nome, and one was in Brevig.
At press time on Tuesday, there were 25 active cases in the region: Eight in Unalakleet, five in Nome, four in White Mountain, three in Elim, two in Shishmaref, one in Brevig, one in Savoonga, and one in Teller.
Since the beginning of the pandemic the United States has had at 94,645,190 officially reported cases of COVID-19 and 1,042,581 associated deaths.
The State of Alaska has had 279,888 cases, 3,865 hospitalizations, and 1,304 deaths. There are currently 80 people hospitalized due to COVID-19.
Nome, the Norton Sound and Bering Strait region has had at least 6,434 cases, 48 hospitalizations and six deaths.