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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
People wearing masks stroll and relax on Bishop Square in downtown Honolulu on Thursday.
UPDATE: 4:25 p.m.
Hawaii Department of Health said in an email this afternoon the four new coronavirus-related deaths reported today were all Oahu residents who had underlying health conditions when they were hospitalized with COVID-19.
They included a man in his 60s, a woman in her 60s and two women in their 90s. No further details were revealed.
Hawaii health officials referred to CDC in defining “underlying medical conditions,” such as cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, down syndrome, heart conditions, weakened immune system from solid organ transplant, obesity, severe obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking and Type 2 diabetes.
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 this morning, with 21 in intensive care units and 18 on ventilators.
Meanwhile, Hawaii health officials are currently investigating COVID-19 clusters within the past 14 days on Oahu, Maui County and Hawaii County. No clusters were under investigation for Kauai County.
>> On Oahu, health officials are investigating one cluster involving correctional facilities with a total of 641 cases, one cluster at an unidentified restaurant with 16 total cases, two clusters involving unidentified educational settings with a eight total cases, and one cluster involving an unidentified food supplier with four total cases.
>> In Maui County, three clusters involving construction and industrial settings are under investigation with 25 total cases, and four clusters involving apartment complexes with 122 total cases.
“In all three clusters, carpooling and work-related mainland travel have been identified as possibly associated with transmission of COVID-19 among employees,” according to a COVID-19 cluster report released today.
According to the report, health officials said construction and industrial settings have been identified as sources of COVID-19 clusters in Hawaii starting in mid-2020 and “occurring regularly since that point.”
“To date, Hawai‘i State Department of Health Disease Investigators have investigated clusters in the state associated with residential and non-residential construction sites, shipyards, landscaping companies, non-food manufacturers, industrial warehouses, and related sales and distribution centers. Additionally, at least three clusters investigated have involved cases diagnosed on multiple Hawaiian Islands due to work-related interisland travel,” the report said.
>> In Hawaii County, health officials are investigating one cluster involving travel, lodging and tourism with four total cases. They did not identify the location, but defined travel, lodging and tourism as domestic, international, interisland travel, lodging, cruise ships and other tourism.
“The Hawai‘i State Department of Health recommends that employees of all industries follow state recommendations for physical distancing and masking while working and during leisure time and abide by Hawaii’s travel-related quarantine guidelines in order to prevent future clusters,” according to the report.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Hawaii health officials today reported four new coronavirus-related deaths and 132 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 332 fatalities and 24,870 cases.
No further details were immediately available regarding the latest coronavirus-related deaths on Oahu.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 262 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 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 was more than 411,000 today.
Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 98 on Oahu, 19 on Maui, five on the Big Island, one on Kauai, and nine residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. As a result of updated information, one case from Oahu was recategorized to Kauai and another Oahu case was removed from the counts.
The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Wednesday.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 20,230 on Oahu, 2,113 in Hawaii County, 1,550 on Maui, 177 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 25 on Molokai. There are also 669 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,838 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 115 today.
By island, Oahu has 1,326 active cases, Maui has 354, the Big Island has 139, Kauai has 19, according to the state’s latest tally. Lanai and Molokai have no active COVID cases.
Health officials counted 5,065 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 2.61% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is also 2.4%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,647 have required hospitalizations, with five 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 1,643 hospitalizations within the state, 1,441 have been on Oahu, 96 on Maui, 93 on the Big Island, 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 100 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Thursday morning, with 23 in intensive care units and 21 on ventilators.
Health officials said that as of Sunday, 70,095 vaccines have been administered of the 154,150 received by the state. The vaccinations by county are Honolulu, 39,886; Maui, 10,195; Hawaii, 7,011; and Kauai, 5,328. The total also included 7,675 administered under the federal pharmacy program. State officials release the updated vaccination numbers each Wednesday.
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 77 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 2.9%, 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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