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Hawaii sees 1 new coronavirus-related death and 87 new COVID-19 infections

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 2020
                                A swab is prepared for use at a free COVID-19 testing site. Hawaii Department of Health is offering free rapid COVID-19 testing at the University of Hawaii West Oahu campus in Kapolei today from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Walk-ins are accepted. To make an appointment, call (719) 387-1416 or email kimberly.e.gushikuma@hawaii.gov or deborah.gier.cnst@doh.hawaii.gov.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 2020

A swab is prepared for use at a free COVID-19 testing site. Hawaii Department of Health is offering free rapid COVID-19 testing at the University of Hawaii West Oahu campus in Kapolei today from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Walk-ins are accepted. To make an appointment, call (719) 387-1416 or email kimberly.e.gushikuma@hawaii.gov or deborah.gier.cnst@doh.hawaii.gov.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 87 infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 453 fatalities and 28,694 cases.

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

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 360 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 36 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 541,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 29.7 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases include 55 on Oahu, 22 on Maui, nine on Hawaii island, and one Hawaii resident diagnosed outside the state, according to health officials. As a result of updated information, state health officials removed one Oahu case from the counts.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 22,522 on Oahu, 2,586 on Maui, 2,370 in Hawaii County, 186 on Kauai, 109 on Lanai and 30 on Molokai. There are also 891 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 826 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 three today.

By island, Oahu has 445 active cases, Maui has 269, the Big Island has 106, Kauai has two, Lanai has one and Molokai has three.

Health officials counted 3,680 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 2.36% 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, 1,948 have required hospitalizations, with one new hospitalization 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 1,940 hospitalizations within the state, 1,665 have been on Oahu, 156 on Maui, 105 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 21 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Friday morning, with eight in intensive care units and six on ventilators.

The state’s Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said Friday that 518,381 vaccines have been administered of the 654,090 received by the state. About 22% of the general population in Hawaii has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Of those who have received at least one vaccine dose so far, 50% are age 59 or younger, while the other half are age 60 or older.

Of the administered vaccines, 493,741 were given to the general public and 24,640 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. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi on March 11 announced modifications to Tier 3, including allowing bars to reopen under the same conditions as restaurants and extending the curfew until midnight.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 37 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.3%, according to Blangiardi.


This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.


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