Hawaii reports 38 new coronavirus infections statewide for total of 14,709
Hawaii health officials reported 38 new coronavirus infections statewide today, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 14,709 cases.
No new deaths were reported today for the second straight day. The Health Department’s official state death toll remains 212, which includes 165 fatalities on Oahu, 28 on Hawaii island, 18 in Maui County, and one Kauai resident who died on the mainland. For the first time today, the department said one of the 18 Maui County deaths was from Lanai, while the rest were from the Valley Isle.
The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency also said today that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll is now at 40, however, state health officials now have yet to verify coronavirus as a factor in 12 of those Big Island deaths.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll is over 225,000 today.
Today’s new infection cases include 26 on Oahu, nine on Hawaii island, one on Kauai, and two Hawaii residents diagnosed out of state. The Health Department’s daily case counts are often lower on Monday compared with the rest of the week due to fewer testing results being tallied over the weekend.
As a result of updated information, state health officials removed one Oahu case from the state’s tally today.
Lanai is experiencing a growing cluster of COVID-19 cases with scores being recently reported by Maui County health authorities and hundreds of tests results pending.
For the first time today, the Health Department listed Lanai and Molokai’s infection tallies separate from Maui County in its daily counts.
Today’s total coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 12,864 on Oahu, 1,230 in Hawaii County, 401 on Maui , 79 on Lanai, 62 on Kauai, and 17 on Molokai. There are also 56 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Hawaii island has also seen a recent spike in cases and county officials said in a news release today that the high numbers “are concentrated in housing areas in North Kona and South Hilo Districts. These numbers reflect the ongoing testing policies to identify clusters of positive cases so they can be isolated and treated to prevent the spread of the virus.”
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As of today, 3,053 infections are considered active cases statewide, with a total of 11,444 patients now classified by health officials as “released from isolation,” or 78% 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 39 new releases today.
By county, Honolulu has seen 10,162 patients released from isolation, Hawaii County has had 846 releases, Maui has seen 362 patients released. Lanai has seen no recorded release cases, while Molokai has two active infections and Kauai has one active case, according to today’s Health Department breakdown.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 1,067 have required hospitalizations, with two new hospitalizations — one each on Oahu and 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 1,065 hospitalizations within the state, 943 have been on Oahu, 62 on the Big Island, 57 on Maui, and one each on Lanai, Molokai and Kauai.
According to the latest data from the Health Department, a total of 64 patients with COVID-19 are in Hawaii hospitals, with 15 in intensive care units and 10 on ventilators.
Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Thursday, and must stay in that tier for four weeks. To move to Tier 3 no earlier than Nov. 19, Oahu must maintain a seven-day average case count of 49 or fewer cases, and a seven-day average positivity rate of 2.49% or lower for 14 consecutive days at the end of the four-week period. Today’s seven-day average case count is 54 and the positivity rate was 2.2%.
This breaking news story will be updated when more information becomes available.