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2 new COVID-19 deaths on Oahu and another Hilo veterans home death; 168 new cases statewide

ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2007
                                The Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo has been the site of a major cluster of coronavirus cases.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2007

The Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo has been the site of a major cluster of coronavirus cases.

UPDATE 3:30 p.m.

Hawaii Department of Health officials said this afternoon an Oahu man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s with underlying health conditions were the latest COVID-19 deaths.

The man died in the hospital, but the woman died at home, state health officials said.

The additional death reported today at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo was not included in today’s official statewide death toll.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green said today that there are 163 COVID-19 patients in Hawaii hospitals, with 55 of them in intensive care units and 42 on ventilators. According to state health figures, 162, or 66%, of the state’s 244 ICU beds, and 109, or 24%, of Hawaii’s 459 ventilators are in use, by both coronavirus and non-virus patients.

The state’s positivity rate currently stands at 6.1%.

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Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new COVID-19 deaths on Oahu and 168 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 122 fatalities and 11,689 cases.

The new infection cases in Hawaii today included 154 on Oahu, 13 in Hawaii County and one on Molokai. As a result of updated information, one Oahu case was removed from the tally.

No further information was immediately available about the latest deaths on Oahu. Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency today also reported an additional death at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo, bumping up the facility’s death toll to 26. The latest Hilo deaths were not included in today’s state tally.

The Health Department’s official death toll as of today includes 97 on Oahu, 15 on Hawaii island, and nine on Maui, while one was a Kauai resident who died on the mainland.

The official statewide death toll is expected to climb significantly since the state Health Department has not yet verified the cause of death in most of the reported fatalities at the Hilo veterans home.

The U.S. death toll today surpassed 201,000. The bleak milestone, by far the highest confirmed death toll from the virus in the world, was reported Tuesday by Johns Hopkins.

Today’s total coronavirus cases by county since the start of the outbreak are 10,546 on Oahu, 672 in Hawaii County, 386 in Maui County, and 57 in Kauai County. There are also 28 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

As of today, 6,442 infections are considered active cases statewide, with a total of 5,125 patients now classified by health officials as “released from isolation,” or nearly 43% of those infected. The category counts those infected people who have met the criteria for being released from isolation. Officials reported 133 new release cases today.

Officials counted 2,716 new tests in today’s tally, with today’s 168 positive results representing 6.1% of the total tested.

Of the 286,785 coronavirus tests conducted so far by state and clinical laboratories in Hawaii since the start of the outbreak, a total of 4% have been positive. Of the 56,257 total surge tests conducted recently on Oahu, 342, or less than 1%, were positive.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 763 have required hospitalizations, with 14 new hospitalizations — 12 on Oahu and two in Hawaii County — reported today, health officials said.

Two hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 761 hospitalizations in the state, 675 have been on Oahu, 48 on Maui, 37 on Hawaii island, and one on Kauai.

By county, Honolulu has seen 4,321 patients released from isolation, Hawaii County has had 482 releases, Maui has seen 266 patients released. Kauai has no active cases as of today, according to the Health Department.

9:34 a.m.

The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency today reported another COVID-19 fatality at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home, pushing Hawaii County’s pandemic death toll to 28.

Hawaii Department of Health officials have yet to count the latest deaths at the Hilo veterans home. State officials said 20 deaths are still pending verification and classification.

“DOH is awaiting medical records and reports to verify these deaths prior to official reporting,” according to a news release.

The agency today reported 13 new coronavirus cases and 16 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Hawaii County. No other details were immediately available.

“Our sincere gratitude for their service to the country and prayers and condolences to their families,” according to a news release.

A report released Monday by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency found “multiple potential sources of infections” brought into the 95-bed facility by employees who appear to be “connected to known community outbreaks, unknown asymptomatic but infectious carriers (staff), and community outbreak exposure at a dialysis center.”

A separate report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said “there was very little proactive preparation/planning for COVID.”

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