Hawaii records 7 new coronavirus-related deaths, 429 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported seven new coronavirus-related deaths and 429 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 633 fatalities and 69,573 cases.

All of the latest deaths were on Oahu. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 485 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 653,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 40.6 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 273 new cases on Oahu, 63 on Maui, 52 on Hawaii island, 33 on Kauai and eight 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 48,716 on Oahu, 8,150 on Maui, 8,542 in Hawaii County, 1,638 on Kauai, 134 on Lanai and 166 on Molokai. There are also 2,227 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of 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, 10,582 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 485.

By island, Oahu has 7,355 active cases, the Big Island has 1,576, Maui has 1,118, Kauai has 518, Lanai has five and Molokai has 10.

Health officials counted 6,004 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 7.15% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 7.1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 1,911,540 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Wednesday, up 3,242 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 64.8% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 73% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 3,822 have required hospitalizations, with 28 new hospitalizations reported today.

Nineteen hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 3,803 hospitalizations within the state, 3,103 have been on Oahu, 431 on Maui, 233 on the Big Island, 29 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 398 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 93 in intensive care units and 71 on ventilators.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 411 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 8.0%, state health officials said today.

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