Rural Alaska gained two more positive cases of COVID-19, according to today’s announcement by Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. One case was reported for Nome and one was reported for the Northwest Arctic Borough.

With two new cases in Wasilla, that’s four more new cases reported on Saturday, bringing the state total to 408 cases.

The report for May 22 reflects data from midnight until 11:59 p.m. on May 22 that posted at noon today on the Alaska Coronavirus Response Hub.

This is the third case for Nome with a case each reported over the past two days. Both of the new Nome cases are still under investigation and do not appear to be connected. It also is the second case for the Northwest Arctic Borough; the two borough cases have residences in different villages.

Another nonresident case in Alaska was identified yesterday in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area in a seafood industry worker. This case was reported by the Valdez Unified Command by press release and on Facebook. The patient was asymptomatic and identified through employer testing put into place to protect workers and the community.

According to DHSS, the case investigation found that the individual had remained on the Peter Pan Seafoods campus since arriving in Valdez; several individuals identified as close contacts of the patient have been moved into quarantine. Risk to the community is considered to be low. This is the first case in Valdez; it brings the nonresident case count to 13. Nonresident cases are reported separately, and the cases are counted for the state and city where the patients live.

Of the new Alaska cases, two are male and two are female. One each is aged 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70-79 years.

COVID-19 by the numbers

There have been a total of 45 hospitalizations and 10 deaths, with one new hospitalization and no new deaths reported yesterday. Recovered cases now total 358, with two new recovered cases recorded yesterday. A total of 42,351 tests have been conducted.

Locally, South Peninsula Hospital has sent 812 samples out for testing as of Friday, according to Public Information Officer Derotha Ferraro. Of those, 787 tests have come back negative, 20 are still pending and there have been a cumulative total of five positive tests from the hospital. That includes one test for an Anchor Point man who died, three tests for City of Homer residents, and one test for a resident of the lower Kenai Peninsula identified as “other” in the DHSS database.

Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.