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Hawaii reports 108 new coronavirus infections, bringing total to 21,209

JAMM AQUINO /DEC. 20
                                A woman wearing a mask waits at a bus stop on Keeaumoku Street in Honolulu earlier this month.

JAMM AQUINO /DEC. 20

A woman wearing a mask waits at a bus stop on Keeaumoku Street in Honolulu earlier this month.

Hawaii health officials today reported 108 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 21,209 cases.

The state Department of Health reported no new deaths for the seven straight day, leaving the statewide death toll at 285. However, Hawaii County officials said Sunday that one coronavirus-related death on the Big Island was reported over the past week.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll remains at 285, with the Department of Health counting 221 fatalities on Oahu, 44 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui, one on Kauai, and two Hawaii residents who were died on the mainland.

The U.S. coronavirus death toll rose above 340,000 today as coronavirus cases across the nation topped 19.6 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 86 on Oahu, 17 on Maui, two on the Big Island, one on Kauai, and two state residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. As a result of updated information, two Oahu cases were removed from the counts.

The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Monday.

RELATED: Mayor Kirk Caldwell says coronavirus response was too slow

Health officials counted 3,420 COVID-19 new test results in today’s tally, for a 3.1% statewide positivity rate.

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 17,773 on Oahu, 1,873 in Hawaii County, 932 on Maui, 145 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 22 on Molokai. There are also 358 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

Hawaii health officials said that of the state’s total infection count, 1,578 cases were considered to be active. Health officials say they consider infections reported in the past 14 days to be a “proxy number for active cases.” The number of active cases in the state rose by one today.

By island, Oahu has 1,236 active cases, Maui has 206, the Big Island has 126, and Kauai has 10, according to the latest tally. Molokai and Lanai no longer have active COVID cases.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,458 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.

Three hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,455 hospitalizations within the state, 1,281 have been on Oahu, 88 on the Big Island, 73 on Maui, seven on Kauai, five on Lanai and one on Molokai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 data dashboard, a total of 97 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Wednesday, with 16 in intensive care units and 18 on ventilators.

Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Honolulu 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 must be below 2.5% on those two Wednesdays.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 72 and the positivity rate is 3.2%, according to Caldwell.

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