Hawaii sees 2 new coronavirus-related deaths and 61 additional cases statewide

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new coronavirus-related deaths and 61 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections statewide, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 35,726 cases.

State health officials began counting probable infections Wednesday, bumping up the statewide total coronavirus case count since the start of the pandemic. The probable infections include people who never received a confirmatory test but are believed to have had the virus because of their known exposure and symptoms or because of a positive antigen test.

The latest deaths were an Oahu man in his 70s and an Oahu woman in her 70s. Both had been hospitalized with underlying health conditions, state health officials said in an email.

State health officials reported 62 new confirmed cases and removed one probable case today. By island, Oahu had 39 new cases, Hawaii island and Kauai each had three, Maui and Molokai each had one, and Lanai had none, and there were 14 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.

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The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 382 fatalities on Oahu, 54 on Maui, 53 on Hawaii island, two on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is more than 589,000 and the nationwide infection tally is about 33 million.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 26,794 on Oahu, 4,383 on Maui, 2,839 in Hawaii County, 316 on Kauai, 115 on Lanai and 74 on Molokai. There are also 1,205 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Today’s probable infections since the start of the pandemic added to the counts today include 796 on Maui, 725 on Oahu, 63 on Hawaii island, 24 on Molokai, three each on Kauai and Lanai, and 44 residents diagnosed outside the state.

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

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,042 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 64 today.

By island, Oahu has 819 active cases, Maui has 124, the Big Island has 56, Kauai has 19, Molokai has 24 and Lanai has none.

Health officials counted 3,999 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.53% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.5%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said that 1,437,758 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Thursday.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 2,280 have required hospitalizations, with one new hospitalization reported today.

Ten hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 2,270 hospitalizations within the state, 1,890 have been on Oahu, 242 on Maui, 123 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 45 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with seven in intensive care units and five on ventilators.