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JAMM AQUINO / OCT. 30
Mask-wearing pedestrians walk along Bishop Street in Honolulu last month. Government and health officials continue to urge the public to wear masks and practice social distancing to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Hawaii health officials reported 108 new coronavirus infections statewide today, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 16,519 cases.
The official state Department of Health coronavirus-related death toll remains unchanged at 222, and includes 173 fatalities on Oahu, 31 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui, and one Kauai resident who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency says that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll is 48, however, state health officials have yet to verify coronavirus as a factor in 17 of those deaths.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll is more than 245,000 today.
Today’s new infection cases in Hawaii include 90 on Oahu, 12 on the Big Island, three on Kauai, one on Maui, and two Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, according to the Health Department. As a result of updated information, one previous infection case from Oahu was removed from the state’s tally.
Department officials said today’s new case count came from 5,318 COVID-19 tests, for a 2% statewide positivity rate.
Today’s total coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 14,261 on Oahu, 1,471 in Hawaii County, 444 on Maui, 106 on Lanai, 80 on Kauai, and 17 on Molokai. There are also 140 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
On Friday, Kauai County officials announced that two of the island’s latest cases are a child and woman who “acquired the acquired the illness locally, and not during travel.” Neither are hospitalized.
“This week’s increase in cases is deeply worrisome,” Mayor Derek S. K. Kawakami said in an news release. “New cases of community transmission show that the virus is spreading on our island again. Now is the time to keep your guard up and remain vigilant. Please wear your mask, keep a safe physical distance from others, and avoid large gatherings, especially as we approach the holiday season.
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Hawaii health officials said that of the state’s total infection count, 1,454 cases are currently considered active statewide. Health officials have replaced the “released from isolation” statistic, which had been used to calculate the number of active cases, with “cases in the past 14 days.” They said this new classification serves as a “proxy number for active cases” and is based on infections reported in the past 14 days. The total number of active cases rose by 40 today.
The Health Department says the number of active cases by island include: 1,135 on Oahu, 196 on the Big Island, 36 on Maui, 16 on Kauai, and seven on Lanai, plus 64 of the residents diagnosed outside the state.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,209 have required hospitalizations, with 15 new hospitalizations on Oahu 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 1,207 hospitalizations within the state, 1,067 have been on Oahu, 71 on the Big Island, 36 on Maui, five each on Kauai and Lanai, and one on Molokai.
According to the latest data from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 63 patients with COVID-19 were in Hawaii hospitals as of Friday, with 14 in intensive care units and one on a ventilator.
Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Oct. 22. The mayor’s office says that to gauge whether Honolulu will move to a different tier, the city takes a “weekly assessment” of two key COVID-19 numbers each Wednesday. To move to Tier 3 from Tier 2, the 7-day average of new cases must be below 50 on two consecutive Wednesdays. Also the 7-day average positivity rate, or percentage of tests coming back positive, must be below 2.5% on those two Wednesdays.
Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 80 and the positivity rate was 3%, according to the mayor.
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