Hawaii reports 163 new coronavirus cases, bringing statewide total to 40,822

UPDATE: 2:25 p.m.

State health officials said this afternoon there are 90 COVID-19 patients in Hawaii hospitals, 20 of them in intensive care units and 12 on ventilators. The numbers had not been updated since Friday when there were 74 COVID patients, 17 of whom were in ICUs and 11 on ventilators.

Government officials are watching the hospitalization numbers closely as Hawaii sees its greatest surge in infections since January, due in part to the highly contagious delta variant. Lt. Gov. Josh Green said late last week that so far Hawaii’s hospitals have been able to handle the increase in COVID patients.

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Hawaii Department of Health officials reported 163 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections today, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 40,822 cases.

No new virus-related fatalities were reported today so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remains 529.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 410 fatalities on Oahu, 58 on Maui, 56 on Hawaii island, two on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is nearly 611,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 34.4 million.

Today was the 12th straight day of triple digit new infections in Hawaii as the delta variant spreads through the state.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 105 new cases on Oahu, 34 on Hawaii island, 16 on Maui, one on Kauai, and seven Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.

State health officials have been including probable infections in its total case counts. 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 29,753 on Oahu, 4,950 on Maui, 3,740 in Hawaii County, 515 on Kauai, 117 on Lanai, and 81 on Molokai. There are also 1,666 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

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

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 2,048 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 95.

By island, Oahu has 1,400 active cases, the Big Island has 369, Maui has 185, Kauai has 91, Lanai has two, and Molokai has one.

Health officials counted 4,072 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a statewide positivity rate of about 4 percent. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 4.6%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 1,744, 704 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Sunday, up 4,820 from Friday. Health officials say that 59.8% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 66.3% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 2,633 have required hospitalizations, with two new hospitalizations on Maui reported today.

Fourteen hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 2,619 hospitalizations within the state, 2,133 have been on Oahu, 311 on Maui, 155 on the Big Island, 14 on Kauai, five on Lanai and one on Molokai.