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Hawaii’s coronavirus cases climb by 23 to 410, with 16 new hospitalizations

GEORGE F. LEE / March 31
                                The Queen’s Medical Center on Punchbowl Street has a large tent set up outside its emergency room as part of its coronavirus response.
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GEORGE F. LEE / March 31

The Queen’s Medical Center on Punchbowl Street has a large tent set up outside its emergency room as part of its coronavirus response.

Hawaii Department of Health officials said today that the state’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 410, up 23 from Monday.

Of all the confirmed cases in Hawaii since the start of the outbreak, 42 have required hospitalizations, with 16 new cases reported today, health officials said.

The state’s coronavirus death toll stands at five, unchanged from Monday. The five deaths are three men and two women.

Today’s statewide total includes 312 cases on Oahu, 48 in Maui County, 23 on Hawaii island, and 18 in Kauai County, according to health officials.

The statewide total also includes two Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

Seven cases in the statewide total are pending identification of county, down two from Monday.

In all, state officials today reported 20 new cases on Oahu, four in Maui County, one new cases on Kauai, and no new cases on the Big Island. Health officials say that the sum of changes by county is “larger than the number of statewide newly reported cases because of previously reported pending cases being reclassified to county totals as more information is collected.”

A total 113 patients have recovered since the start of the outbreak, with health officials reporting 24 new recoveries today. By county, Honolulu has seen 83 patients recover, Maui has had 14 recoveries, the Big Island has had nine, and Kauai has seen seven, as of noon today, the Health Department says.

Of the 42 hospitalizations in the state, 36 have been on Oahu, five on Maui and one on Kauai.

The state’s Joint COVID-19 Information Center said in a statement that of today’s 23 new cases, all are adults, with three travel-related and the rest unknown. The center said there has been a decrease of travel-associated cases, but Health Department investigators are looking at community-associated cases, primarily on Oahu and Maui.

“This is why the continued practice of physical distancing is so critical in flattening the curve of infection in the state,” officials said.

The COVID-19 Information Center said that of the 14,981 coronavirus tests so far conducted by state and clinical laboratories in the islands, a total 408, or 2.7%, have been positive. (That number does not include the two Hawaii residents living outside the state who are also counted in Hawaii’s total of 410 cases.)

On Monday, health officials announced 16 new cases statewide, which had been the smallest increase in 10 days for Hawaii, but state Health Director Bruce Anderson warned that the “worst is yet to come.”