Hawaii reports 3 new coronavirus-related deaths and 188 infections
JAMM AQUINO /DEC. 22
Volunteer Darlene Refilong holds a sign to waiting motorists during a food distribution event on Dec. 22 in Ewa Beach. The Salvation Army’s Kroc Center Hawaii, with the support of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Y. Hata & Co., held the drive-thru food box distribution, with about 450 families receiving food for meals, fresh produce and more.
Hawaii health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 188 new coronavirus infections, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 288 fatalities and 21,397 cases.
The Health Department said the three deaths were women, between the ages of 50 to 79 years old, who were hospitalized in Honolulu with underlying conditions.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll rose to 288, with the Department of Health counting 223 fatalities on Oahu, 45 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui, one on Kauai, and two Hawaii residents who died on the mainland.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll rose above 344,000 today as coronavirus cases across the nation topped 19.9 million.
Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 135 on Oahu, 26 on Maui, 14 on the Big Island and 13 state residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.
The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Tuesday.
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Health officials counted 3,592 COVID-19 new test results in today’s tally, for a 2.7% statewide positivity rate.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 17,908 on Oahu, 1,887 in Hawaii County, 958 on Maui, 145 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 22 on Molokai. There are also 371 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Hawaii health officials said that of the state’s total infection count, 1,619 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 increased by 41 today.
By island, Oahu has 1,260 active cases, Maui has 224, the Big Island has 125, 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, 1,462 have required hospitalizations, with four 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 1,462 hospitalizations within the state, 1,285 have been on Oahu, 88 on the Big Island, 73 on Maui, 7 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 99 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Wednesday, with 17 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 80 and the positivity rate is 3.5%, according to Caldwell.
Caldwell previously said new infections among prisoners at Halawa Correctional Facility will no longer be counted in his metrics for the recovery plan. A recent cluster at the prison had been boosting Honolulu’s infection count and threatening to send Oahu back to Tier 1, the most restrictive of the mayor’s four-tier system.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
