Hawaii sees 62 new coronavirus cases, bringing statewide total to 36,793

Hawaii Department of Health officials reported 62 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections today, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 36,793 cases.

No new virus-related fatalities were reported today so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remains 505.

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 598,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 33.4 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 32 new cases on Oahu, 17 on Maui, 10 on Hawaii island, two on Kauai, and one Hawaii resident diagnosed outside 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.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 27,387 on Oahu, 4,554 on Maui, 3,060 in Hawaii County, 327 on Kauai, 115 on Lanai and 79 on Molokai. There are also 1,271 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 810 on Maui, 755 on Oahu, 66 on Hawaii island, 24 on Molokai, four on Kauai, three on Lanai and 51 residents diagnosed outside the state.

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

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 698 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 decreased today by two.

By island, Oahu has 369 active cases, the Big Island has 190, Maui has 129, Kauai has nine, Molokai has one and Lanai none.

Health officials counted 5,705 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.09% 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 1,592,739 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Wednesday. Health officials say that more than 54% of the state’s population are now fully vaccinated.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 2,377 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 2,367 hospitalizations within the state, 1,960 have been on Oahu, 264 on Maui, 128 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 30 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 12 in intensive care units and six on ventilators.

Oahu is currently under Tier 3 of the city’s four-tier economic recovery plan. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said last week that Honolulu should soon be moving to the less-restrictive Tier 4 as Oahu sees relatively low case counts and rising vaccination rates.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 25 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 0.9%, state health officials said today.

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