1 new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 70 additional COVID-19 infections statewide

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 70 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 425 fatalities and 26,743 cases.

The latest death was an Oahu man in his 60s with underlying health conditions, state officials said this afternoon. No further information was provided.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 339 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 479,000 today as the nationwide tally climbed to 27.4 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 33 on Oahu, 25 on Maui, five on the Big Island, and seven residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. As a result of updated information, two cases from Oahu were 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 21,515 on Oahu, 2,211 in Hawaii County, 1,926 on Maui, 179 on Kauai, 109 on Lanai and 26 on Molokai. There are also 777 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,034 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 44 today.

By island, Oahu has 738 active cases, Maui has 224, the Big Island has 66, Kauai has three, Lanai has two, and Molokai has one, according to the state’s latest tally.

Health officials counted 5,556 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.26% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.3%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,779 have required hospitalizations, with four 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 1,775 hospitalizations within the state, 1,555 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 49 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Thursday 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.

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced today Oahu will stay in Tier 2, a four-tiered framework established by former Mayor Kirk Caldwell, until mid-March unless metrics require moving to the next tier.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 45 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.5%, according to Blangiardi.

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