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Hawaii records 1 new coronavirus-related death and 67 additional infections

TECH SGT. ANTHONY NELSON, JR. / U.S. AIR FORCE VIA AP
                                Hickam 15th Medical Group hosts the first COVID-19 mass vaccination on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Feb. 9. Hawaii Military Medicine has begun providing the COVID-19 vaccine to eligible personnel on a voluntary basis.

TECH SGT. ANTHONY NELSON, JR. / U.S. AIR FORCE VIA AP

Hickam 15th Medical Group hosts the first COVID-19 mass vaccination on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Feb. 9. Hawaii Military Medicine has begun providing the COVID-19 vaccine to eligible personnel on a voluntary basis.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 67 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 428 fatalities and 27,000 cases.

The latest death was on Oahu, bringing the island’s death toll to 342. State health officials said this afternoon an Oahu man in his 90s with underlying health conditions died in the hospital.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 342 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 29 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

Health officials said the state had only 17 new virus infections on Tuesday and 29 on Wednesday, but noted that the low numbers were due to a problem with the “electronic laboratory reporting.” They said they expected 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 45 on Oahu, eight on Maui, seven on the Big Island, one on Kauai, one on Molokai and five residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. State health officials said one case was incorrectly recategorized from Molokai to Maui in Wednesday’s count, which was corrected in today’s tally.

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 21,695 on Oahu, 2,224 in Hawaii County, 1,966 on Maui, 180 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 800 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state

As a result of updated information, two cases from Maui were removed from the state’s official counts, officials said today. As a result of updated information, one case from Maui was recategorized to Molokai, officials said today.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 769 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 41 today.

By island, Oahu has 563 active cases, Maui has 162, the Big Island has 38, Lanai has two, and Kauai and Molokai have two, according to the state’s latest tally.

Health officials counted 7,642 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 0.88% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 0.9%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,806 have required hospitalizations, with two 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 1,802 hospitalizations within the state, 1,573 have been on Oahu, 115 on Maui, 101 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 Wednesday morning, with 12 in intensive care units and eight on ventilators.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green said Wednesday 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 dose of the vaccine.

Of the administered vaccines, 249,390 were given to the general public and 19,038 were distributed through the federal pharmacy program, officials 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 31 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.0%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.


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


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