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Hawaii sees 3 new virus-related deaths; health officials correct daily case count to 81 new infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 81 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 505 fatalities and 36,616 cases.

Health officials corrected the daily infection count this evening after reporting at noon that there were 126 new cases.

The three deaths were all reported on Oahu, according to the state.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 392 fatalities on Oahu, 55 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 over 597,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 33.3 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 35 on Hawaii island, 32 new cases on Oahu, 12 on Maui, and two Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 27,306 on Oahu, 4,495 on Maui, 3,040 in Hawaii County, 325 on Kauai, 115 on Lanai and 79 on Molokai. There are also 1,256 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

State health officials began including probable infections in its total case counts last month. 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.

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

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 708 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 state’s total number of active cases increased today by 37.

By island, Oahu has 407 active cases, the Big Island has 193, Maui has 97, Kauai has eight, Molokai has three and Lanai has none.

Health officials counted 6,097 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.3% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 0.9%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said that 1,553,304 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Friday. Health officials say that more than 52% of the state’s population are now fully vaccinated.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 2,360 have required hospitalizations, with five new hospitalizations reported today.

Ten hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 2,350 hospitalizations within the state, 1,950 have been on Oahu, 259 on Maui, 126 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 36 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Friday, with 10 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. 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 until at least Thursday, according to the mayor’s office. But Blangiardi said recently that Honolulu should soon be moving to Tier 4.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 27 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.1%, state health officials said today.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that today’s new statewide infection count was 81, not 126 as previously reported by the state. The updated version includes a new island-by-island daily infection count and a lower statewide positivity rate.
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