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Hawaii sees 218 new cases and 4 coronavirus-related fatalities as statewide death toll tops 1K

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 7
                                A health care worker holds a packaged COVID-19 antigen testing device outside of Terminal 2 at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 7

A health care worker holds a packaged COVID-19 antigen testing device outside of Terminal 2 at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported four new coronavirus-related deaths and 218 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,002 fatalities and 86,740 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths — two on Hawaii island and two on Oahu.

Today’s case counts include approximately 90 backlogged cases involving testing providers that recently began transmitting data through the state’s electronic lab reporting system.

“This reporting delay includes cases from across the state,” said Hawaii Department of Health spokesman Brooks Baehr in an email. “DOH expects additional backlogged cases to be reported in next few weeks.”

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 747 fatalities on Oahu, 132 on Hawaii island, 98 on Maui, 13 on Kauai, one on Molokai, and 11 Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 770,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 47.6 million.

>> RELATED: Hawaii health officials expand booster shot eligibility to all adults

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 122 new cases on Oahu, 50 on Hawaii island, 20 on Maui, 19 on Kauai, one on Molokai, and six 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 59,135 on Oahu, 11,584 on Hawaii island, 9,812 on Maui, 2,974 on Kauai, 246 on Molokai, and 145 on Lanai. There are also 2,844 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 1,581 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 55.

By island, Oahu has 807 active cases, the Big Island has 335, Maui has 180, Kauai has 257, Lanai has one and Molokai has one.

The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.4%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard. The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 65 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.4%, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,311,008 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Friday, up 4,450 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 72.3% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 84.8% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 4,960 have required hospitalizations, with seven new hospitalizations reported today.

Twenty-nine hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 4,931 hospitalizations within the state, 3,823 have been on Oahu, 593 on Maui, 420 on the Big Island, 83 on Kauai, five on Lanai and seven on Molokai.


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


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