Hawaii records 8 new coronavirus-related deaths, 588 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported eight new coronavirus-related deaths and 588 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 679 fatalities and 73,856 cases.

Seven of the latest deaths were on Oahu and one was on Hawaii island. All of the deceased had underlying conditions, and all but five were hospitalized.

Among the deaths on Oahu, one was a woman in her 30, one was a woman in her 40s who was not hospitalized, one was a man in his 50s, one was a man in his 60s who died at home, one was a man in his 70s, one was a man in his 80s and one was a woman in her 80s who died at home. The death on Hawaii island was a woman in her 80s.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 518 fatalities on Oahu, 79 on Maui, 68 on Hawaii island, eight on Kauai, one on Molokai and five Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 667,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 41.6 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 388 new cases on Oahu, 53 on Maui, 96 on Hawaii island, 38 on Kauai, four on Molokai and nine 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 51,613 on Oahu, 8,557 on Maui, 9,207 in Hawaii County, 1,867 on Kauai, 137 on Lanai and 189 on Molokai. There are also 2,286 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, 8,533 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 434.

By island, Oahu has 5,797 active cases, the Big Island has 1,310, Maui has 890, Kauai has 503, Lanai has five and Molokai has 28.

Health officials counted 8,723 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 6.74% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 6.6%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 1,947,776 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Wednesday, up 5,298 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 65.9% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 74.3% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 3,980 have required hospitalizations, with 35 new hospitalizations reported today.

Nineteen hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 3,961 hospitalizations within the state, 3,207 have been on Oahu, 447 on Maui, 267 on the Big Island, 33 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 340 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 81 in intensive care units and 65 on ventilators.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 412 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 7.8%, state health officials said today.

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