Hawaii reports 107 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing total to 16,841
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
A mask-wearing woman crosses Bishop Street on Tuesday in Honolulu. Hawaii government leaders and health officials continue to encourage the public to wear masks in public, practice social distancing and avoid social gatherings to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
Hawaii health officials today reported 107 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 16,841 cases.
The official state Department of Health coronavirus-related death toll remains 223 and includes 173 fatalities on Oahu, 32 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui, and one Kauai resident who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said today that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 49, however, state health officials have yet to verify coronavirus as a factor in 17 of those deaths.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll, meanwhile, surpassed 250,000 on Wednesday.
>> RELATED: 1st Hawaii inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona dies of COVID-19
Today’s new infection cases in Hawaii include 75 on Oahu, 12 on the Big Island, nine on Maui, four on Kauai, and seven Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, according to the Health Department. As a result of updated information, one case on Oahu was recategorized to Hawaii island, and another was recategorized to out-of-state, health officials said today.
The statistics released today reflect the cases reported to the department through 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.
Department officials said today’s new case count came from 612,615 COVID-19 tests, for a 2% statewide positivity rate.
Today’s total coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 14,506 on Oahu, 1,499 in Hawaii County, 463 on Maui, 106 on Lanai, 84 on Kauai, and 17 on Molokai. There are also 164 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Hawaii health officials said that of the state’s total infection count, 1,527 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 increased by 107 today.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,228 have required hospitalizations, with seven new hospitalizations — five on Oahu and two on Maui — 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 1,226 hospitalizations within the state, 1,081 have been on Oahu, 73 on the Big Island, 60 on Maui, six on Kauai, five on Lanai, and one on Molokai.
According to the latest data from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 data dashboard, a total of 77 patients with COVID-19 were in Hawaii hospitals as of noon Wednesday, with 23 in intensive care units and 13 on ventilators.
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 71 and the positivity rate was 2.7%, according to Caldwell.
