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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / FEB. 4
Pedestrians wore masks as they crossed S. Hotel Street in downtown Honolulu earlier this month.
Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 48 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 426 fatalities and 26,856 cases.
No further information was immediately available regarding the latest death.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 340 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 29 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.
Separately, the Navy said today that a sailor from Hawaii died of complications from COVID-19 in Virginia where he was stationed. The sailor’s death has not been reported in the state’s official count.
The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll is more than 485,000 today as the nationwide infection tally climbed to more than 27.6 million.
Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 38 on Oahu, four on Maui, three on the Big Island, and three residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.
The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Friday.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 21,597 on Oahu, 2,216 in Hawaii County, 1,940 on Maui, 179 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 26 on Molokai. There are also 790 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state. As a result of updated information, two cases on Oahu were removed from the state’s official counts, officials said today.
Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 949 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 34 today.
By island, Oahu has 681 active cases, Maui has 211, the Big Island has 52, Kauai have two each, and Molokai has one, according to the state’s latest tally.
Health officials counted 5,314 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a .8% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is .9%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,796 have required hospitalizations, with four new hospitalizations — three on Oahu and on on Maui — 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 1,796 hospitalizations within the state, 1,567 have been on Oahu, 112 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 45 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Friday morning, with 13 in intensive care units and 10 on ventilators.
Health officials said that as of Feb. 7, 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. State officials release the verified updated vaccination numbers each Wednesday.
RELATED STORY: Vaccine acceptance high in Hawaii nursing homes
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 38 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.0%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi. The mayor announced Friday that Oahu will remain in Tier 2 through March 15 unless the county’s metrics fall below levels that would allow a move to another tier.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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