Hawaii records 2 new coronavirus-related deaths and 50 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new coronavirus-related deaths and 50 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 430 fatalities and 27,048 cases.

The latest deaths were an Oahu man in his 80s and another Maui man in his 60s, both of whom had underlying health conditions and were hospitalized with COVID-19.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 343 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 30 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.” State health officials said this afternoon they are now fully caught up following the lag in case reporting.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll was about 495,000 today and the nationwide infection tally is over 27.9 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 22 on Oahu, 22 on Maui, two on the Big Island, and four residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said. As a result of updated information, one case from Oahu was recategorized to Maui, and one case each from Oahu and Maui 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 21,716 on Oahu, 2,226 in Hawaii County, 1,987 on Maui, 180 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 804 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 722 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 47 today.

By island, Oahu has 520 active cases, Maui has 158, Hawaii island has 39, Lanai has one, and Kauai and Molokai have two each, according to the state’s latest tally.

Health officials counted 4,498 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.11% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 0.8%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,815 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 1,811 hospitalizations within the state, 1,581 have been on Oahu, 116 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 42 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of this morning, with 11 in intensive care units and seven on ventilators.

According to the weekly Hawaii COVID-19 vaccination summary from the state, 268,428 vaccines have been administered of the 315,900 received by the state. The figures represent a 23 percent increase in the number of shots administered, and a 2 percent increase in the number of vaccines received in the state compared with the previous week. About 12.5% of the general population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 55% of those 75 and older received at least one dose.

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 29 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.