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State records 3 new COVID-19 deaths on Oahu, 108 new infections in Hawaii

JAMM AQUINO / SEPT. 25
                                A sign at a Kahala residence promotes wearing face masks to save dogs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animals such as cats and dogs can be infected with the virus.
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JAMM AQUINO / SEPT. 25

A sign at a Kahala residence promotes wearing face masks to save dogs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animals such as cats and dogs can be infected with the virus.

TIM WRIGHT / SPECIAL TO THE HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER
                                The Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo has been the site of a major cluster of coronavirus cases.
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TIM WRIGHT / SPECIAL TO THE HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER

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

JAMM AQUINO / SEPT. 25
                                A sign at a Kahala residence promotes wearing face masks to save dogs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animals such as cats and dogs can be infected with the virus.
TIM WRIGHT / SPECIAL TO THE HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER
                                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 three additional coronavirus-related deaths and 108 new infections statewide, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 139 deaths and 12,515 cases.

The Oahu fatalities included two men between the ages of 60 and 79, and a woman in the 80 to 89-year-old age group. They all had underlying health conditions and died in the hospital, state officials said today.

The Health Department has yet to officially count more than a dozen of the latest deaths at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo, which has been the site of a major COVID-19 cluster. Hilo Medical Center has reported that 27 of the Big Island’s 29 coronavirus-related deaths have been residents of the nursing home.

The state’s official death toll as of today is 139. In addition to the 15 Big Island deaths, the state’s official death toll includes 114 on Oahu, and nine on Maui, while one fatality was a Kauai resident who died on the mainland.

The U.S. death toll is more than 207,000 today.

Today’s new infection cases include 102 on Oahu and six on the Big Island, officials said. As a result of updated information, three Oahu cases were removed from the tally.

Today’s total coronavirus cases by county since the start of the outbreak are 11,296 on Oahu, 736 in Hawaii County, 391 in Maui County, and 59 in Kauai County. There are also 33 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

As of today, 2,036 infections are considered active cases statewide, with a total of 10,340 patients now classified by health officials as “released from isolation,” or 82.6% of those infected, according to the state’s official count. The category counts those infected people who have met the criteria for being released from isolation. Officials reported 42 new releases today.

On Saturday, health officials significantly decreased it’s count of active infections, saying, “The Department of Health has been focused on redesigning procedures to maximize effectiveness of COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing including making a variety of changes to data systems allowing them to be more automated, and to improve timeliness of data entry and validation. Isolation release data completeness was the focus of recent efforts, resulting in a substantial increase in the number of COVID-19 cases currently reported as released from isolation, from 5,397 to 10126.”

By county, Honolulu has seen 9,307 patients released from isolation, Hawaii County has had 612 releases, Maui has seen 365 patients released.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 862 have required hospitalizations, with 15 new hospitalizations — 14 on Oahu and one 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 860 hospitalizations in the state, 761 have been on Oahu, 56 on Maui, 42 on Hawaii island, and one on Kauai.

According to state health figures today, there are 142 COVID-19 patients in general beds at Hawaii hospitals, 45 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units and 21 COVID-19 patients on ventilators.

Officials counted 1,817 new tests in today’s tally, with today’s 108 positive results representing 5.9% of the total tested.

Of the 300,280 coronavirus tests conducted so far by state and clinical laboratories in Hawaii since the start of the outbreak, a total of 4.2% have been positive. Of the 56,257 total surge tests conducted recently on Oahu, 342, or less than 1%, were positive.

Oahu’s seven-day average case count must stay below 100 and its positivity rate must be below 5% for 14 consecutive days to move to the next level of economic opening. Today, Honolulu’s state’s seven-day average case count was at 96.6.

Correction: A previous version of this story reported a higher seven-day average case count.
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