Alaska report describes COVID-19 phases and lessons for future pandemic responses

Yereth Rosen
Alaska Beacon

The Covid-19 pandemic was an overwhelming event in Alaska, and a new state report describes how Indigenous residents, the elderly and Asian people and Pacific Islanders suffered the most as the state’s experience with the disease transitioned through different phases.

From the time the first Alaska case was detected on March 12, 2020, to the end of the declared public health emergency in May of 2023, there were seven distinct periods of the pandemic in the state, according to the report, which was released as a bulletin from the Alaska Division of Public Health’s epidemiology section.

State epidemiologists have classified the seven periods as eras, distinguished by different types of non-pharmaceutical interventions — defined as public health measures to limit the community spread, such as school closures — the availability of vaccines, the variants of the virus that dominated, the availability of antiviral medicines and other factors.

Of the seven eras, the most serious was the fourth, which was dominated by the Delta variant of the virus. That era started in July of 2021 and ran through the end of that year. During that period, 2,021 Alaskans were hospitalized with the disease and 719 died from it, according to the report. Nearly half of Alaska’s COVID-19 deaths occurred then and COVID-19 was the state’s leading cause of death during the period, the report said. Over that entire year, COVID-19 ranked as the third leading cause of death in Alaska, behind cancer and heart disease.

The Delta variant era also proved to be the most dangerous for younger Alaskans, with nearly two-thirds of the deaths among those under 55 years of age.

The Delta variant emerged after the start of vaccinations and Alaskans who had been fully vaccinated were better protected against the disease, the report said. Earlier research by state epidemiologists found that unvaccinated Alaskans with COVID-19 were 4.49 times more likely to die than were Alaskans who had received their full vaccine doses, as recommended by health officials.

The second era, from June to December of 2020, ranked as the second most dangerous, with 968 hospitalization and 291 deaths. And two eras, spanning the period from January to October of 2022, were characterized by Omicron subvariants, and resulted in high case numbers but lower severity, with lower death rates and hospitalization rates.

Alaska Natives and American Indians consistently had the highest rates of death and hospitalization during the entire pandemic, reflecting some longstanding health disparities, the report said.

In some parts of rural Alaska, lack of adequate water and sanitation service was a key factor in those disparities, earlier research found.

There were some sharp geographic differences in vaccination patterns, the report showed. Vaccination rates were highest in Southeast Alaska, Anchorage and Southwest Alaska; they were lowest in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and in the Gulf Coast region.

The epidemiologist team that compiled the report said there are lessons from Alaska’s COVID-19 experience that should be useful for the next pandemic.

The most important of those lessons, the team said in a written statement, “is that early, well-coordinated, and community-centered public health measures are crucial.”

That means ensuring that communities have timely access to prevention and response tools and that local leaders are involved in the effort, the statement said.

Another respiratory illness, though of a nature yet to be determined, is considered the likeliest cause of the next pandemic, the statement said.

“While it is impossible to predict the exact cause of a future pandemic, global health experts consistently point to respiratory viruses such as new influenza strains or emerging coronaviruses as the most likely sources, making continued readiness in this area especially important,” the statement said.

Although the public health emergency is over, COVID-19 has not disappeared. The virus continues to circulate in the population. In 2024, it was the cause of 58 Alaska deaths, according to state records.

Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Claire Stremple for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com.