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Hawaii sees 52 new coronavirus cases, bringing the state’s total to 27,223

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / FEB. 21
                                Shoppers explore a Sunday craft fair at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. 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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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / FEB. 21

Shoppers explore a Sunday craft fair at the Aloha Stadium swap meet. 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.

UPDATE: 4 p.m.

Hawaii Department of Health said in an email this afternoon the seventh death of a Halawa Correctional Facility inmate earlier this month has been confirmed as coronavirus-related.

A male inmate between 60 and 70 years old died in early February and has been classified as a COVID-19 death. State health officials said Halawa remains clear of active confirmed inmate cases.

Coronavirus testing is ongoing statewide at all correctional facilities. The Maui Community Correctional Center reported one inmate has recovered from coronavirus, bringing the total active cases there to 24. The Oahu Community Correctional Center recently reported two staff recoveries, meaning the facility is now clear of the virus.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 37 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of this morning, with seven in intensive care units and six on ventilators.

Meanwhile, Gov. David Ige today ordered flags to fly at half-staff in memory of Americans who died due to coronavirus. The U.S. death toll topped 500,000 today, matching the number of Americans killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined.

“This action is being taken today, as the U.S. marks a half-million COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began,” Ige said in a statement. “Let us reflect on this loss and the memory of the more than 500,000 fellow Americans — including 431 in Hawai‘i — who have died of COVID-19. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones on this day.”

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 52 new coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 27,223 cases.

State health officials reported no additional deaths today as the statewide coronavirus-related death toll remains at 431.

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 topped 500,000 today and the nationwide infection tally is over 28 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 21 on Oahu, 28 on Maui, two on the Big Island, and one on Kauai.

The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Saturday.

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 21,802 on Oahu, 2,234 in Hawaii County, 2,054 on Maui, 181 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, two cases on Oahu and one case on Maui were removed from the counts.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 683 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 increased by 19 today.

By island, Oahu has 453 active cases, Maui has 190, Hawaii island has 36, Molokai has two, and Kauai has two, according to the state’s latest tally. Lanai has no active cases.

Health officials counted 5,810 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 0.90% 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, 1,834 have required hospitalizations, with two new hospitalizations 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 1,829 hospitalizations within the state, 1,595 have been on Oahu, 119 on Maui, 102 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 26 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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