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COURTESY HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@ STARADVERTISER.COM
Business was steady at the Waikiki Shell testing site, Dec. 16, which had more than 300 clients by the afternoon.
Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported the highest single-day Thursday case count, which topped more than 1,500 cases today.
State health officials today started identifying the locations of COVID-19 clusters cases reported within the past 14 days. Recent clusters have been identified at Dec. 10 and 11 events at The District Nightclub and The Republik along with a Dec. 11 event dubbed AFHA annual holiday event at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Officials today recommended individuals who attended those events to get tested for the virus.
Health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 1,511 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,077 fatalities and 96,765 cases.
Two of the latest deaths were on the Big Island and one was on Kauai. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.
Health Director Dr. Libby Char today reported with the omicron variant circulating in the community, there have been “a lot” of breakthrough infections among those who have been fully vaccinated. In a tweet today, Lt. Gov. Josh Green said that there are currently 77 hospitalized COVID-19 patients statewide with 27 of those patients having been vaccinated.
Char urged individuals to get the booster shot and celebrate the holidays safely in smaller groups. As of today, state health officials reported 23.4% of the state’s total population have received the booster shot.
“Go get your booster shot; go get it now,” Char said. “Don’t wait.”
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 796 fatalities on Oahu, 150 on Hawaii island, 104 on Maui, 15 on Kauai, one on Molokai and 11 Hawaii residents who died outside the state.
Hawaii Department of Health investigators find out the vaccination status of each positive case after the fact, which is why those statistics are not included side by side in the daily case counts, officials have previously said.
The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 807,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 51.3 million.
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Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 1,293 new cases on Oahu, 66 on Hawaii island, 98 on Maui, 29 on Kauai, three on Lanai and 22 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 67,096 on Oahu, 12,154 on Hawaii island, 10,559 on Maui, 3,422 on Kauai, 261 on Molokai, and 154 on Lanai. There are also 3,119 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.
Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 7,812 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 1,327.
By island, Oahu has 6,918 active cases, the Big Island has 295, Kauai has 179, Maui has 394, Molokai has 17 and Lanai has nine.
Health officials counted 11,956 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 12.64% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 8.1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 806 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 10.4%, state health officials said today.
The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,499,812 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Thursday, up 10,995 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 73.8% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 79.2% have received at least one dose.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,202 have required hospitalizations, with 18 new hospitalizations reported today.
Thirty hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,172 hospitalizations within the state, 3,969 have been on Oahu, 626 on Maui, 455 on the Big Island, 106 on Kauai, 11 on Molokai and five on Lanai.
According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 73 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Wednesday, with 12 in intensive care units and eight on ventilators.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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