Hawaii sees 62 new coronavirus infections

Hawaii health officials reported 62 new COVID-19 infections statewide today, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 14,834 cases.

No new deaths were reported for the third day this week, and the Department of Health dropped two coronavirus-related fatalities (one each from Lanai and Maui)from the statewide death toll, which now stands at 213.

“As a result of updated information, two previously reported deaths were determined to not be related to COVID-19 and were removed from the counts,” health officials said.

The department’s official state death toll includes 166 fatalities on Oahu, 30 on Hawaii island, 16 on Maui, and one Kauai resident who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said Tuesday 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 227,000 today.

Today’s new infection cases include 41 on Oahu, seven on Lanai, five on Hawaii island, two on Maui, one on Kauai, and six Hawaii residents diagnosed out of state. As a result of updated information, state health officials also removed one Oahu case from the state’s tally today.

Kauai County officials earlier this morning announced the island’s latest case, an adult female visitor who was placed in isolation after reporting symptoms and testing positive for the virus. She had previously tested negative as part of the state’s pre-travel testing program and had also tested negative in a voluntary post-travel test, county officials said.

On Monday, the Health Department started listing Lanai and Molokai’s infection tallies separately from Maui County in its daily counts.

Today’s total coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 12,953 on Oahu, 1,238 in Hawaii County, 405 on Maui, 94 on Lanai, 63 on Kauai, and 17 on Molokai. There are also 64 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

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As of today, 3,016 infections are considered active cases statewide, with a total of 11,605 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 82 new releases today.

Health Department officials said they counted 4,393 tests in today’s count for a 1.4% statewide positivity rate.

Honolulu has seen 10,302 patients released from isolation, Hawaii County has had 865 releases, Maui has seen 363 patients released, and Lanai has seen one release case. Kauai now has three active infections, and Molokai has one, according to today’s Health Department breakdown.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 1,081 have required hospitalizations, with eight new hospitalizations — seven on Oahu and one on the Big 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 1,079 hospitalizations within the state, 955 have been on Oahu, 64 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 61 patients with COVID-19 are in Hawaii hospitals, with 15 in intensive care units and 12 on ventilators.

Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Oct. 22, 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 49 and the positivity rate was 2% for Oahu.

This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.