As state officials announced some of the first steps to stabilize Alaska’s stumbling economy Tuesday, they also announced another 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases.
That number includes a worker at BP Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field who tested positive for the infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to Dr. Anne Zink, the state’s chief medical officer.
The new cases bring Alaska’s total to 133. They include five new cases in Fairbanks, four in Juneau, two in Anchorage, two in Eagle River/Chugiak and the first confirmed case in Kenai. Two are older than 60, 10 between the ages of 30 and 59, and two between 19 and 29.
Three Alaskans have died of the virus. Nine have been hospitalized, a slight increase from Monday. The state is trying to build its own epidemiological model that takes into account the unique way Alaskans move within such a large state to predict the virus’s peak, Zink said during a press briefing Tuesday evening.