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Hawaii sees 47 new coronavirus cases, bringing the state’s total to 27,270

COURTESY LANCE CPL. BRANDON AULTMAN/U.S. MARINE CORPS / FEB. 17
                                U.S. military personnel from across Oahu line up to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam early this month. Hawaii Marines volunteer to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to protect their health and support the overall readiness of forces garrisoned aboard MCBH.

COURTESY LANCE CPL. BRANDON AULTMAN/U.S. MARINE CORPS / FEB. 17

U.S. military personnel from across Oahu line up to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam early this month. Hawaii Marines volunteer to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to protect their health and support the overall readiness of forces garrisoned aboard MCBH.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 47 new coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 27,270 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 today topped 501,000 and the nationwide infection tally is over 28.2 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 27 on Oahu, 17 on Maui and three residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 21,829 on Oahu, 2,234 in Hawaii County, 2,071 on Maui, 181 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 820 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 693 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 10 today.

By island, Oahu has 457 active cases, Maui has 200, the Big Island has 33, Molokai has two, and Kauai has two, according to the state’s latest tally. Lanai has no active cases.

>> RELATED STORY: More coronavirus vaccines on the way to Hawaii

Health officials counted 784 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 6% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,840 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations reported today on Oahu by state health officials.

Five hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,835 hospitalizations within the state, 1,601 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 34 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of this morning, with six in intensive care units and six on ventilators.

According to the state’s verified weekly Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary, 306,275 vaccines have been administered of the 330,900 received by the state as of Feb. 22. About 13.6% of the general population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while about 59% of those ages 75 and over also received one dose.

Of the administered vaccines, 284,709 were given to the general public and 21,566 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 1.1%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

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