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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
There were few cars on H-1 freeway near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Sunday and a state message board that alternately tells the public to “Protect don’t infect” and to “Stay home.” Hawaii’s tally of coronavirus cases rose today to 609, up two from Monday with both cases from Maui County.
UPDATE: 4:20 p.m.
The Lanai resident who contracted the coronavirus had been hospitalized on Maui for an extended time starting in early March and later contracted the coronavirus, Hawaii health officials said this afternoon.
The patient, who was being treated for a health condition unrelated to the coronavirus, initially tested negative for COVID-19, but a recent test came back positive, they said. Health officials did not immediately identify the hospital but Maui Memorial Medical Center, the island’s largest health care facility, has been the site of a huge cluster of cases.
Officials said earlier today that the Lanai resident — the first known person from that island to contract the virus — will remain on Maui “for the interim.”
According to the state’s latest count, a total of 58 people (38 staff and 20 patients) at the medical center have tested positive and are being investigated as part of the cluster. This total represents nearly 10 percent of all the state’s 607 coronavirus-infected patients since the outbreak reached Hawaii.
Health officials also clarified today that a positive case reported on Monday as a medical center employee was actually a hospitalist, an employee of Maui Medical Group who works at the hospital.
Of Hawaii’s 609 coronavirus cases since Feb. 28, 318 cases are travel-related, 234 are the result of community spread, and the origins of 57 are under investigation, health officials said.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Hawaii’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 609, up two from Monday, including the first known confirmed case for a Lanai resident, state Department of Health officials said today.
Of all the confirmed cases in Hawaii since the start of the outbreak, 69 have required hospitalizations, with one new hospitalization reported today on Maui, officials said.
The state’s coronavirus death toll stands at 16, unchanged from Monday. Eleven of the deaths have been on Oahu and five on Maui.
A total 505 patients have recovered since the start of the outbreak, with health officials reporting 12 new recoveries today. Just under 83% of the people who have been infected in Hawaii are now classified as recovered.
Today’s statewide total includes 396 cases on Oahu, 115 in Maui County, 70 on Hawaii island, and 21 in Kauai County, according to the Health Department. The total also includes seven Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Both of today’s new cases are adults from Maui County. The Lanai resident was exposed to the virus on Maui and will be remaining on the Valley Isle “for the interim,” state officials said.
By county, Honolulu has seen 354 patients recover, Maui has had 80 recoveries, the Big Island has had 51, and Kauai has seen 20 recoveries among its 21 total patients, as of noon today, the Health Department says.
Of the 69 hospitalizations in the state, 53 have been on Oahu, 14 on Maui and one each on the Big Island and Kauai
The state’s Joint COVID-19 Information Center said that of the 28,577 coronavirus tests so far conducted by state and clinical laboratories in the islands, 2.1% have been positive.
On Monday, health officials announced just one new COVID-19 case in Hawaii but also the state’s 16th coronavirus-related death.
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