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Hawaii sees 98 new coronavirus cases as the statewide tally rises to 31,075

JAMM AQUINO / 2020
                                A woman places her COVID-19 test swab specimen in a bag at a coronavirus testing site at the Waikiki Shell. Visit <a href="https://www.oneoahu.org/covid19-testing" target="_blank">oneoahu.org/covid19-testing</a> for more information about COVID-19 testing.

JAMM AQUINO / 2020

A woman places her COVID-19 test swab specimen in a bag at a coronavirus testing site at the Waikiki Shell. Visit oneoahu.org/covid19-testing for more information about COVID-19 testing.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 98 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 31,075 cases.

State health officials reported no new coronavirus-related deaths as the statewide death toll remains at 473.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 370 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 46 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is more than 564,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 31.5 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases include 59 on Oahu, 24 on Maui, 14 on Hawaii island and one on Molokai, according to health officials. As a result of updated information, state health officials removed two cases from Oahu and one case from Maui from the counts.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 23,928 on Oahu, 3,188 on Maui, 2,618 in Hawaii County, 199 on Kauai, 111 on Lanai and 35 on Molokai. There are also 996 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,242 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 13 today.

By island, Oahu has 799 active cases, Maui has 302, the Big Island has 131, Kauai has nine and Molokai has one. Lanai has no active infection cases.

Health officials counted 5,229 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.87% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.6%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The state’s Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said that 1,007,966 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today. A total of 33% of the state’s population have received at least one vaccine dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 2,067 have required hospitalizations, with three 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 2,059 hospitalizations within the state, 1,742 have been on Oahu, 190 on Maui, 112 on the Big Island, nine 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 46 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of this morning, with nine in intensive care units and seven on ventilators.

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.

Honolulu will remain in Tier 3 of the city’s COVID-19 reopening framework for at least the next four weeks, Blangiardi said last week.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 56 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 2.0%, according to the mayor.


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


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