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Hawaii reports 89 new coronavirus infections as statewide total tops 22K infections

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / DEC. 31, 2020
                                Silhouetted beachgoers wade into the waters of Waikiki.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / DEC. 31, 2020

Silhouetted beachgoers wade into the waters of Waikiki.

Hawaii health officials today reported 89 new coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 22,045 cases.

No new deaths were recorded today, 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 today 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 above 352,000 today with total coronavirus cases across the nation now topping 20 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 62 on Oahu, nine on Maui, four on the Big Island, and 14 state residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.

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

>> RELATED STORY: COVID infection rate on the rise in Hawaii

Health officials counted 2,454 COVID-19 new test results in today’s tally, for a 3.63% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 3.4%.

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 18,340 on Oahu, 1,926 in Hawaii County, 1,070 on Maui, 150 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 22 on Molokai. There are also 431 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

Hawaii health officials said that of the state’s total infection count, 1,598 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 decreased by 57 today.

By island, Oahu has 1,189 active cases, Maui has 287, the Big Island has 110, and Kauai has 12, according to the state’s latest tally. Molokai and Lanai no longer have active COVID cases.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,488 have required hospitalizations, with nine 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 1,485 hospitalizations within the state, 1,308 have been on Oahu, 88 on the Big Island, 76 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 115 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of 8:30 a.m. today, with 18 in intensive care units and 15 on ventilators.

Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Honolulu’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Oct. 22. 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 101 and the positivity rate is 4.5%, according to Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

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