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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Pedestrians wearing masks crossed South King Street, Feb. 2, in downtown Honolulu.
Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 1,167 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 547 fatalities and 49,564 cases.
The latest death was a hospitalized Oahu man in his 70s with underlying conditions, according to the state Department of Health.
Health Department spokesman Brooks Baehr said today’s case count includes all cases from the regular 24-hour reporting cycle that ended at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday and the remainder of the cases not reported earlier in the week due to an “interruption in service” in the state’s electronic lab reporting system.
“As always has always been the case, trends are more important than single day counts,” Baehr said in an email. “The trend continues to show an increasing number of people infected by COVID-19.
“The average daily count during the three days impacted by the data interruption is 729 per day.”
The latest surge in cases prompted Gov. David Ige to hold a press conference this morning to address what he called “a crisis.”
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 421 fatalities on Oahu, 62 on Maui, 59 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 620,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 36.4 million.
Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 837 new cases on Oahu, 109 on Maui, 151 on Hawaii island, 46 on Kauai, six on Molokai, and 18 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 35,429 on Oahu, 5,867 on Maui, 5,308 in Hawaii County, 778 on Kauai, 117 on Lanai and 113 on Molokai. There are also 1,952 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.
Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 7,327 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 618.
By island, Oahu has 5,005 active cases, the Big Island has 1,345, Maui has 708, Kauai has 237, Lanai has none and Molokai has 32.
Health officials counted 14,887 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 7.84% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 7.4%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 1,797,402 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Thursday, up 5,171 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 61.2% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 68.9% have received at least one dose.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 2,971 have required hospitalizations, with nine new hospitalizations reported today.
Sixteen hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 2,955 hospitalizations within the state, 2,393 have been on Oahu, 350 on Maui, 190 on the Big Island, 16 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 283 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Thursday, with 50 in intensive care units and 38 on ventilators.
The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 404 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 8.2%, state health officials said today.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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