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Hawaii reports one new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 68 additional infections statewide

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                Beachgoers hang out at the Magic Island lagoon at Ala Moana Beach Park on Friday. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said he hopes Oahu can move into Tier 3 of the city’s coronavirus restrictions, which permits social and outdoor recreational gatherings of up to 10 people, up from five currently.
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM

Beachgoers hang out at the Magic Island lagoon at Ala Moana Beach Park on Friday. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said he hopes Oahu can move into Tier 3 of the city’s coronavirus restrictions, which permits social and outdoor recreational gatherings of up to 10 people, up from five currently.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 68 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 431 fatalities and 27,174 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest death.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 344 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 30 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll was nearing 500,000 today and the nationwide infection tally is over 28 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 33 on Oahu, 28 on Maui, four 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 21,783 on Oahu, 2,232 in Hawaii County, 2,227 on Maui, 180 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 817 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state

As a result of updated information, one Oahu case was removed from the state’s official counts, officials said today.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 664 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 four today.

By island, Oahu has 453 active cases, Maui has 171, the Big Island has 37, Molokai has two, and Kauai has one, according to the state’s latest tally. Lanai has no active cases.

RELATED STORY: COVID-19 cases declining among Hawaii public school students and staff

Health officials counted 9,477 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 0.7% 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, 1,832 have required hospitalizations, with two new hospitalizations on Oahu reported today by state health officials.

Five hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,827 hospitalizations within the state, 1,594 have been on Oahu, 119 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 Friday morning, with 11 in intensive care units and seven on ventilators.

According to the state’s verified weekly Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary, 268,428 vaccines have been administered of the 315,900 received by the state as of Feb. 14. About 12.5% of the general population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while about 55% of those ages 75 and over also received 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 27 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.1%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

The mayor said last week that he hopes Oahu can move into Tier 3 of the city’s coronavirus restrictions later this week. Tier 3 permits social and outdoor recreational gatherings of up to 10 people, up from five currently, and restaurants to seat 10 people at a table, also up from five now.

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