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Hawaii records 116 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total statewide tally to 25,771

GEORGE F. LEE / JAN. 29
                                A man casts his fishing line to the water Friday at Ala Moana Beach Park. Noncommercial fishing has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, keeping fishing supply stores busy.

GEORGE F. LEE / JAN. 29

A man casts his fishing line to the water Friday at Ala Moana Beach Park. Noncommercial fishing has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, keeping fishing supply stores busy.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 116 new coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 25,771 cases.

There were no new deaths reported today, and the state’s coronavirus-related death toll remains at 407.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 325 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 25 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died on the mainland.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll was more than 437,600 today.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 82 on Oahu, 20 on Maui, eight on the Big Island, and six residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. As a result of updated information, one Kauai case was recategorized to Maui, and one case from Hawaii island was removed from the counts.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 20,864 on Oahu, 2,151 in Hawaii County, 1,726 on Maui, 178 on Kauai, 107 on Lanai and 25 on Molokai. There are also 720 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,456 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 45 today.

By island, Oahu has 1,066 active cases, Maui has 297, the Big Island has 86, Kauai has six, and Lanai has one, according to the state’s latest tally. Molokai has no active COVID cases.

Health officials counted 9,472 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.22% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 2.3%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,694 have required hospitalizations, with 11 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 1,690 hospitalizations within the state, 1,482 have been on Oahu, 99 on Maui, 96 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 75 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Friday morning, with 20 in intensive care units and 15 on ventilators.

Health officials said that as of Jan. 24, 106,654 vaccines have been administered of the 170,975 received by the state. The administered vaccinations by county are Honolulu, 68,521; Maui, 11,060; Hawaii, 10,459 and Kauai, 8,799. The total also included several thousand administered under the federal pharmacy program. State officials release the verified 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 2.7%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

Blangiardi has said 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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