Wrangell adds more cases; now at 60 for the month

The borough reported two new COVID-19 cases in Wrangell on Wednesday, adding to the four on Tuesday and pushing the November total to 60 -- by far the highest monthly count of the almost two-year-long pandemic.

All but one of the 60 cases are Wrangell residents and most were close contacts of recent positive cases, including the two infections reported Wednesday.

The previous record was 48 cases in August.

Of the recent cases in town, the borough reported 15 were still active as of late Wednesday afternoon, down from last week as individuals recover from the disease.

Wrangell has reported 216 COVID cases since the pandemic tally started in March 2020.

The numbers are worse in Petersburg, where the borough reported 52 new cases over the past seven days, 63 active cases as of Tuesday, and 21 active cases among school students and staff. Petersburg has tallied 532 infections since the start of the pandemic, according to the community's COVID-19 dashboard on Tuesday.

Of those 532 cases, 178 have come in the past 30 days, according to the state.

Across Alaska, the number of new infections reported on Tuesday and Wednesday averaged about 315 a day, according to the state COVID-19 statistics. That's about half the daily case count from the past 60 days and down substantially from September's peak of more than 1,200 infections reported on several days.