Hawaii reports 171 new coronavirus infections, bringing the statewide total to 21,807
Hawaii health officials today reported 171 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 21,807 cases.
The state Department of Health reported no new deaths, leaving the statewide death toll at 289.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 224 fatalities on Oahu, 45 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui, one on Kauai, and two Hawaii residents who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said Friday that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll remained at 51, but state officials have not verified coronavirus as a factor in six of those fatalities.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll rose to nearly 350,000 today as coronavirus cases across the nation now above 20 million.
Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 92 on Oahu, 47 on Maui, 20 on the Big Island, two on Kauai, and 10 state residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. As a result of updated information, two Maui cases were removed from the counts.
The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Thursday.
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Health officials counted 5,994 COVID-19 new test results in today’s tally, for a 2.8% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 3.1%.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 18,190 on Oahu, 1,920 in Hawaii County, 1,031 on Maui, 148 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 22 on Molokai. There are also 390 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Hawaii health officials said that of the state’s total infection count, 1,736 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 increasedby nine today.
By island, Oahu has 1,322 active cases, Maui has 273, the Big Island has 130, and Kauai has 11, according to the latest tally. Molokai and Lanai no longer have active COVID cases.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,479 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations — five on Oahu and one on Maui — 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 1,476 hospitalizations within the state, 1,300 have been on Oahu, 88 on the Big Island, 75 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 101 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Wednesday, with 11 in intensive care units and 9 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 94 and the positivity rate is 4,1%, according to Caldwell, who leaves office today.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.