Hawaii reports 3 coronavirus-related deaths and 48 new infections as statewide tally tops 28K

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 48 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 448 fatalities and 28,023 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths on Oahu.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 356 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 35 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today was more than 528,000 and the nationwide infection tally is over 29 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases include 29 on Oahu, nine on Maui, five on Hawaii island, and five state residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, according to health officials. As a result of updated information, state health officials removed two Oahu cases from the counts.

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

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The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 22,174 on Oahu, 2,365 on Maui, 2,294 in Hawaii County, 186 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 869 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 653 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 eight today.

By island, Oahu has 341 active cases, Maui has 249, the Big Island has 59, and Kauai has four. Molokai and Lanai have no active cases.

Health officials counted 5,054 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 0.95% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.2%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,914 have required hospitalizations, with nine new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.

Eight hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,906 hospitalizations within the state, 1,645 have been on Oahu, 146 on Maui, 101 on the Big Island, eight 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 23 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Tuesday morning, with five in intensive care units and two on ventilators.

The state’s Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said today that 425,749 vaccines have been administered of the 550,250 received by the state. About 18% of the general population in Hawaii has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Of the vaccines received, about 52% of those ages 59 or younger and 48% of those over the age of 60 received at least one dose.

Of the administered vaccines, 401,632 were given to the general public and 24,117 were distributed through the federal pharmacy program, officials said.

Oahu moved into the less-restrictive Tier 3 of the city’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Feb. 25 after being in Tier 2 since Oct. 22. Tier 3 permits social and outdoor recreational gatherings of up to 10 people, and restaurants to seat 10 people at a table, up from five now. Tier 3 also allows funeral services with up to 25 attendees, and group fitness classes indoors with up to 10 participants. Gym capacity can increase to 50%. Restaurants and spiritual services can operate at full capacity as long as the establishments maintain 6 feet of distancing.

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 from Tier 3 to the least-restrictive Tier 4, the 7-day average of new cases must be below 20 on two consecutive Wednesdays. Also, the 7-day average positivity rate must be below 1% on those two Wednesdays. The earliest that Oahu could move into Tier 4 would be late March since it needs to stay in each tier for at least four weeks.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 27 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.