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Hawaii reports 39 new coronavirus infections statewide

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                Beachgoers enjoy the ocean on Friday in Waikiki. The state’s highly anticipated pre-travel COVID-19 testing program has brought thousands of tourists back to the islands since starting on Thursday.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Beachgoers enjoy the ocean on Friday in Waikiki. The state’s highly anticipated pre-travel COVID-19 testing program has brought thousands of tourists back to the islands since starting on Thursday.

UPDATE: 3:45 p.m.

State health officials this afternoon released some information about two coronavirus-related fatalities that were announced over the weekend.

Officials said the latest deaths on Oahu were a woman over the age of 80, and a man between 60-69 years old. Both had an underlying conditions and were hospitalized when they died.

No additional deaths were reported today.

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Hawaii recorded 39 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 14,068 cases, health officials said today.

The Health Department’s official state death toll remains unchanged at 187, with 150 on Oahu, 18 each on Hawaii island and Maui, and one Kauai resident who died on the mainland.

Hilo County officials have said that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll is now at 40, however state health officials have yet to verify coronavirus as a factor in more than 20 of those Big Island deaths.

The U.S. coronavirus death toll is over 220,000 today.

As of today, 2,803 infections are considered active cases statewide, with a total of 11,078 patients now classified by health officials as “released from isolation,” or about 79% 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 34 new releases today.

Today’s new infection cases include 31 on Oahu, seven on Hawaii island, and one Hawaii resident diagnosed out of state. As the result of updated information, two cases from Honolulu were removed from the counts and one case from Kauai was re-categorized as a Hawaii resident diagnosed outside of state, health officials said.

State health officials did not immediately release testing data from today, but the case counts reported on Mondays are often lower than the rest of the week due to a lower number of test results tallied over the weekend.

State health officials said they counted 1,985 tests in today’s count for a 2% statewide positivity rate.

Today’s total coronavirus cases by county since the start of the outbreak are 12,494 on Oahu, 1,059 in Hawaii County, 411 in Maui County and 60 in Kauai County. There are also 44 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

>> RELATED STORY: Some travelers are allowed to enter Hawaii without tests from approved labs

By county, Honolulu has seen 9,868 patients released from isolation, Hawaii County has had 7675 releases, Maui has seen 377 patients released. Kauai has one active cases.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 1,012 have required hospitalizations, with seven new hospitalizations — five on Oahu and two on Hawaii island — reported today by state health officials.

Two hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,010 hospitalizations within the state, 895 have been on Oahu, 57 each on Maui and Hawaii island, and one on Kauai.

Oahu’s seven-day average case count must stay below 100 and its seven-day average positivity rate must be below 5% for 14 consecutive days to move to the next level of economic opening on Oct. 22. Oahu’s seven-day average case count was 62 today, the 20th straight day below 100, while the seven-day average positivity rate was 2.9%, the 26th straight day below 5%, according to Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the health department.

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