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JAMM AQUINO / JAN. 9
CVS pharmacist Anh Mitsuda loads syringes with the Moderna COVID-19 at Manoa Gardens retirement community last month.
Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 29 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 427 fatalities and 26,935 cases.
The latest fatality was a man in his 70s, who had underlying conditions and was hospitalized when he died.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 341 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 29 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.
On Tuesday, health officials said the state had only 17 new virus infections, but later in the day clarified that the low number was due to a problem with the “electronic laboratory reporting.” The problem continued with today’s count. They said they expect a “rebound effect” with higher daily case counts in the days to come.
The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll was about 489,000 today and the nationwide infection tally is over 27.8 million.
Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 17 on Oahu, nine on Maui, one on the Big Island, and two residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.
The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Monday.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 21,650 on Oahu, 2,217 in Hawaii County, 1,959 on Maui, 179 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 795 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state. As a result of updated information, one out-of-state case was recategorized to Oahu, officials said today.
Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 810 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 40 today.
By island, Oahu has 598 active cases, Maui has 171, the Big Island has 37, Lanai has two, and Kauai and Molokai have one, according to the state’s latest tally.
Health officials counted 2,184 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.3% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,804 have required hospitalizations, with four new hospitalizations on Oahu 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 1,800 hospitalizations within the state, 1,574 have been on Oahu, 113 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 39 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of this morning, with 12 in intensive care units and 8 on ventilators.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green said today that , 268,428 vaccines have been administered of the 315,900 received by the state. Green said about 12 percent of the general population has received at least one does of the vaccine.
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 33 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.2%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi. This is the first Wednesday that both numbers were below the threshold to move to Tier 3, however it is unclear whether the glitch with the Health Department’s laboratory reporting today and Tuesday will affect the city’s decision on loosening restrictions.
>> RELATED: Low case numbers move Honolulu closer to Tier 3
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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