COVID still sickens Alaskans, but effects are muted and the death toll continues to drop

Years after the pandemic peak, the virus is considered endemic, still circulating but causing less harm than before

A mounted polar bear on display at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, seen on March 24, 2021, sports a mask similar to those worn by people trying to avoid the spread of COVID-19. That year was the worst in Alaska for pandemic deaths. Now the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is considered endemic, and the death toll in the just-completed season was only a small fraction of that during the peak years for the disease. (Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

By Yereth Rosen

Alaska Beacon

The respiratory virus that sparked a disruptive worldwide pandemic six years ago continues to circulate in Alaska, but its effects are much diminished from past years, according to state health statistics.

In the 2025-2026 season, 22 Alaskans, including one child, died with COVID-19 listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death, according to a bulletin issued Wednesday by the Alaska Department of Health’s epidemiology section.

The statistics continue a pattern of decline since the pandemic’s peak.

In 2024, there were 58 COVID deaths in Alaska, according to the state’s most recent annual vital statistics report. In 2021, COVID was the state’s third-leading cause of death, with a toll of 762. In 2020 and 2022, it was the fourth leading cause of death in Alaska, with totals of 231 and 264 deaths respectively, according to the annual report. In 2023, the disease dropped out of the Top 10 causes of death, according to the annual report.

For the just-completed September-to-August season, lab-confirmed COVID cases in Alaska typically numbered in the hundreds each month.

Those numbers should not be considered the absolute totals for cases in the state, the epidemiology team said by email.

“The reported case numbers almost certainly underestimate the true number of infections, since many people with mild illness stay home, use an at-home test, or don’t test at all,” the epidemiology team’s email said. “The numbers are therefore more useful for tracking trends than measuring the total number of infections.”

Even if they understate actual cases, the reported cases show some waves and ebbs over time.

In September of 2025, there were nearly 1,000 lab-confirmed cases. The number dropped dramatically the following month. Case numbers increased again in late winter to a seasonal peak in February, then declined before picking up in August. The month-to-month changes were similar to those occurring nationally, according to the bulletin.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is now well-established and circulating regularly, meaning it is considered endemic, the epidemiology team said.

“But it doesn’t yet seem to follow a perfectly predictable seasonal pattern in Alaska or nationally. For example, there hasn’t been a predictable back-to-school surge specifically for COVID like we see for influenza and common cold viruses,” the team’s message said.

In addition to those Alaska patients found to have COVID, there are larger numbers of patients who got medical treatment over the 12-month period for COVID-like symptoms but no official diagnosis of the infection. The condition known as COVID-like illness, or CLI, involves high fevers, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, in patients without influenza and without confirmed COVID.

The Alaska Department of Health continues to recommend COVID vaccines for adults and children over 6 months of age, with special attention to those in higher-risk categories.

The Department of Health plans to make childhood COVID vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program. The program provides free vaccines to children covered by Medicaid programs, in low-income families or lacking insurance altogether.

The Trump administration delayed access to childhood COVID vaccines for that program. It has just now made them available for states to order, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.

• Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has been reporting on Alaska news ever since, covering stories ranging from oil spills to sled-dog races. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.