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Hawaii reports 2 new coronavirus-related deaths and 107 additional infections

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                Pedestrians wearing masks cross South King Street on Tuesday in downtown Honolulu.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Pedestrians wearing masks cross South King Street on Tuesday in downtown Honolulu.

UPDATE: 4 p.m.

State health officials said this afternoon the latest coronavirus-related deaths included two men in their 70s with underlying health conditions. No further details were released.

Separately, the Maui Community Correctional Center reported one new confirmed case of an inmate, bringing the facility’s total to two positive cases. According to a news release from state health officials, 21 inmates are in medical isolation while 75 inmates are on quarantine status as they undergo precautionary testing. There are currently two adult correctional officers on a 14-day quarantine due to potential coronavirus exposure.

“No MCCC staff have reported having COVID-19. MCCC is working collaboratively with the Maui District Health Office, the Department of Health and the Hawaii Army National Guard to implement mass testing of affected inmates and staff,” according to a news release.

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Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new coronavirus-related deaths and 107 additional infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 416 fatalities and 26,187 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 333 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 26 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll was more than 454,000 today.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 79 on Oahu, 16 on Maui, seven on the Big Island and five residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. As a result of updated information, one case from Oahu was recategorized to Hawaii island, and one case from Kauai was removed from the counts.

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

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The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 21,141 on Oahu, 2,184 in Hawaii County, 1,809 on Maui, 178 on Kauai, 107 on Lanai and 25 on Molokai. There are also 743 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,374 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 nine today.

By island, Oahu has 1,374 active cases, Maui has 277, the Big Island has 77, Kauai has three, and Lanai has one, according to the state’s latest tally. Molokai has no active COVID cases.

Health officials counted 4,120 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 2.6% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.9%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,724 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 1,720 hospitalizations within the state, 1,508 have been on Oahu, 101 on Maui, 98 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 55 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Wednesday morning, with 21 in intensive care units and 16 on ventilators.

Health officials said that as of Sunday, 157,018 vaccines have been administered of the 227,600 received by the state. The administered vaccinations by county are Honolulu, 105,500; Maui, 14,391; Hawaii, 15,035 and Kauai, 11,755. 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 62 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 2.4%, 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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