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1 new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 95 additional COVID-19 infections statewide

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                An electronic message display sign provides the public with COVID-19 vaccination information Wednesday at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center where vaccinations are being held by The Queen’s Health Systems.
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

An electronic message display sign provides the public with COVID-19 vaccination information Wednesday at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center where vaccinations are being held by The Queen’s Health Systems.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 95 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 424 fatalities and 26,675 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest death on Oahu.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 338 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 29 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll is more than 473,000 today as the nationwide tally climbed to 27.3 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 63 on Oahu, 19 on Maui, three on the Big Island, one on Molokai, and nine residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 21,484 on Oahu, 2,206 in Hawaii County, 1,901 on Maui, 179 on Kauai, 109 on Lanai and 26 on Molokai. There are also 770 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state. As a result of updated information, one Maui case was recategorized to residents diagnosed outside the state, two cases on Oahu and two cases from outside of Hawaii were removed from the counts, officials said today.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,078 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 seven today.

By island, Oahu has 782 active cases, Maui has 222, the Big Island has 67, Kauai has three, Lanai has two, and Molokai has one, according to the state’s latest tally.

Health officials counted 5,184 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.83% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.4%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,775 have required hospitalizations, with nine 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 1,771 hospitalizations within the state, 1,551 have been on Oahu, 107 on Maui, 100 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 52 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Wednesday morning, with 14 in intensive care units and 12 on ventilators.

Health officials said that as of Sunday, 218,997 vaccines have been administered of the 288,050 received by the state. Of the administered vaccines, 201,553 were given to the general public and 17,444 were distributed through the federal pharmacy program, officials said. As of Sunday, nearly 11% of the general population of Hawaii, and 47% of residents age 75 and older, have received at least one dose, they said. 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 50 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.8%, 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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