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2 new COVID-19 deaths on Oahu and 90 new coronavirus cases statewide

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 20
                                Dhen Agustin checked-in for an interisland flight at the Hawaiian Airlines kiosk with Mary Jane Gaspar at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Sunday.
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 20

Dhen Agustin checked-in for an interisland flight at the Hawaiian Airlines kiosk with Mary Jane Gaspar at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Sunday.

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.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 20
                                Dhen Agustin checked-in for an interisland flight at the Hawaiian Airlines kiosk with Mary Jane Gaspar at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Sunday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2007
                                The Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo has been the site of a major cluster of coronavirus cases.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new COVID-19 deaths on Oahu and 90 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 124 fatalities and 11,779 cases.

The new infection cases in Hawaii today included 81 on Oahu, five in Hawaii County, two in Maui County, and two residents diagnosed outside of the state. As a result of updated information, one case from Hawaii County was removed from the tally.

The latest Oahu victims included a man in his 50s and another man in his 60s, both of whom had underlying health conditions and died while they were hospitalized, state health officials said.

The Hawaii Department of Health has yet to count the latest deaths at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home.

The state’s official death toll as of today includes 99 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, which has a total of 26 fatalities. Hawaii County’s total COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic stand at 28.

The U.S. death toll today surpassed 202,000. The bleak milestone, by far the highest confirmed death toll from the virus in the world, was reported by Johns Hopkins University.

Today’s total coronavirus cases by county since the start of the outbreak are 10,627 on Oahu, 677 in Hawaii County, 388 in Maui County, and 57 in Kauai County. There are also 30 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

As of today, 6,390 infections are considered active cases statewide, with a total of 5,265 patients now classified by health officials as “released from isolation,” or nearly 44% of those infected. The category counts those infected people who have met the criteria for being released from isolation. Officials reported 140 new release cases today.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 779 have required hospitalizations, with 16 new hospitalizations reported today, health officials said.

Two hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 779 hospitalizations in the state, 687 have been on Oahu, 52 on Maui, 37 on Hawaii island, and one on Kauai.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green said today that there are 162 COVID-19 patients in Hawaii hospitals, with 54 of them in intensive care units and 34 on ventilators. According to state health figures from Thursday, 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.

By county, Honolulu has seen 4,442 patients released from isolation, Hawaii County has had 492 releases, Maui has seen 275 patients released. Kauai has no active cases as of today, according to the Health Department.

Officials counted 1,737 new tests in today’s tally, with today’s 90 positive results representing 5.1% of the total tested. Of the 288,522 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.

Correction: An earlier version of this story reported a higher positivity rate.
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