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Hawaii records 75 new COVID-19 infections and one coronavirus-related death on Maui

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                Corinne Shinn, left, and mother Mavis Taniguchi, 85, wait for their transportation after both receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at the first mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Pier 2 on Monday in Honolulu. Over 27,000 are expected to receive the Pfizer/Biotech COVID-19 vaccine at the site, which is being overseen by Hawaii Pacific Health.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Corinne Shinn, left, and mother Mavis Taniguchi, 85, wait for their transportation after both receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at the first mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Pier 2 on Monday in Honolulu. Over 27,000 are expected to receive the Pfizer/Biotech COVID-19 vaccine at the site, which is being overseen by Hawaii Pacific Health.

UPDATE: 4 p.m.

Hawaii Department of Health said today in an email the latest coronavirus-related death was a Maui woman in her 70s who died in the hospital with underlying health conditions. No further details were given.

Hawaii health officials refer to CDC guidelines when defining underlying medical conditions such as those with cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, down syndrome, heart conditions, weakened immune system from a solid organ transplant, obesity, severe obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking and Type 2 diabetes.

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Hawaii health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 75 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 325 fatalities and 24,620 cases.

No further details were immediately available regarding the latest coronavirus-related death on Maui.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 255 fatalities on Oahu, 45 on Hawaii island, 21 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three 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. Hawaii County has reported no coronavirus-related deaths in the past three weeks.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll surpassed 400,000 on Tuesday, one year after the first U.S. virus infection was diagnosed in Washington state.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 50 on Oahu, 14 on Maui, four on the Big Island, one on Kauai, and six residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 20,067 on Oahu, 2,092 in Hawaii County, 1,501 on Maui, 176 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 25 on Molokai. There are also 653 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 2,127 cases were considered to be active. 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 1,573 active cases, Maui has 383, the Big Island has 146, Kauai has 23 and Molokai has two, according to the state’s latest tally. Lanai has no active COVID cases.

Health officials counted 3,547 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 2.11% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 2.5%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,620 have required hospitalizations, with three new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.

Four hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,616 hospitalizations within the state, 1,418 have been on Oahu, 93 on the Big Island, 92 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 96 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Tuesday morning, with 23 in intensive care units and 18 on ventilators.

State health officials said last week that 40,386 people have been vaccinated since Jan. 9 — including 25,613 in Honolulu County, 4,182 in Maui County, 4,251 in Hawaii County, and 2,740 in Kauai County. The vaccination numbers are updated weekly.

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 87 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 3.1%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

Blangiardi said last week he hoped to stay in Tier 2, a four-tiered framework established by former Mayor Kirk Caldwell. Under Tier 3, social gatherings of up to 10 would be allowed, up from 5 under Tier 2, and retail businesses would be able to operate at full capacity, rather than 50% capacity under Tier 2.


This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.


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