Hawaii sees 499 new coronavirus cases, bringing statewide total to 68,764

Hawaii Department of Health officials reported 499 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections today, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 68,764 cases.

No new virus-related fatalities were reported today so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remains 626.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 478 fatalities on Oahu, 76 on Maui, 63 on Hawaii island, four on Kauai, one on Molokai and four Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 649,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 40.1 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 364 new cases on Oahu, 38 on Maui, 50 on Hawaii island, 45 on Kauai and two 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 48,240 on Oahu, 8,033 on Maui, 8,395 in Hawaii County, 1,586 on Kauai, 134 on Lanai and 166 on Molokai. There are also 2,210 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

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

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 11,265 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 28.

By island, Oahu has 7,816 active cases, the Big Island has 1,708, Maui has 1,181, Kauai has 538, Lanai has eight and Molokai has 14.

Health officials counted 6,645 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 7.51% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 7.2%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 1,899,029 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Monday, up 493 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 64.4% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 72.6% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 3,687 have required hospitalizations, with 11 new hospitalizations reported today.

Nineteen hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 3,668 hospitalizations within the state, 2,978 have been on Oahu, 426 on Maui, 233 on the Big Island, 24 on Kauai, five on Lanai and two on Molokai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 473 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 101 in intensive care units and 86 on ventilators.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 477 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 8.1%, state health officials said today.

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