In Alaska, at least one COVID-19 death — but usually two or more, and as many as 10 — was reported for each day in the month of September, state data shows.

Vaccines — which are proven to decrease the likelihood of severe illness, hospitalization and death from the virus — have been widely available in the state for months.

Janet Johnston, former Anchorage Health Department epidemiologist, said that until more people get vaccinated, the coronavirus will continue to spread.

“We’re going to keep seeing high rates of cases and hospitalizations and deaths,” Johnston said.

[Alaska reports 6 deaths, 877 cases Friday as COVID-19 hospitalizations remain near record level].

Given how much virus is being spread, Johnston said, it’s hard to believe there won’t be more serious mutations in the future beyond the current delta variant.

“Which, again, is the reason why we need to get people vaccinated and get the case counts down so we have less virus transmitting,” Johnston said.

“September was a bad month, and unfortunately, I think people can expect to the next couple of months are going to have pretty high death numbers compared to what we’re used to,” Westley said.

And the virus is especially bad for those who are unvaccinated, he said.

“There’s no way to avoid death when this many people that are unvaccinated are getting COVID,” Westley said.

September’s COVID-19 cases overwhelmed hospitals, a situation the state had largely avoided for many months during previous surges, said Dr.

While it looks like cases may have plateaued, they’re plateauing at a really high level, which Hennessy said is discouraging given how effective vaccines are and how much we know about the virus.

This summer demonstrated that the state’s large portion of unvaccinated people spread the virus, he said

Even assuming that some of the unvaccinated people now have natural immunity from the recent surge, Hennessy said there are still enough people without immunity to continue the current surge or create another one if people don’t take actions to stop spread