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Hawaii sees 824 new coronavirus cases, bringing statewide total to 104,597

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                Health care workers administered COVID-19 tests, Dec. 24, at the free drive-thru and walk-up vaccination clinic set up at Neal S. Blaisdell parking lot.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM

Health care workers administered COVID-19 tests, Dec. 24, at the free drive-thru and walk-up vaccination clinic set up at Neal S. Blaisdell parking lot.

Hawaii Department of Health officials reported 824 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections today, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 104,597 cases.

No new virus-related fatalities were reported today so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remains 1,082.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 797 fatalities on Oahu, 151 on Hawaii island, 104 on Maui, 18 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 814,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 52.3 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 613 new cases on Oahu, 50 on Hawaii island, 107 on Maui, 17 on Kauai, 25 on Molokai and 12 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.

Today’s count are cases tallied by the department on Sunday.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 73,568 on Oahu, 12,593 on Hawaii island, 11,098 on Maui, 3,637 on Kauai, 318 on Molokai and 157 on Lanai. There are also 3,226 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 14,514 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 548.

By island, Oahu has 12,614 active cases, the Big Island has 650, Kauai has 344, Maui has 830, Molokai has 64 and Lanai has 12.

Health officials counted 8,926 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 9.23% statewide positivity rate.

The state’s 7-day average case count is 1,417 and the seven-day positivity rate is 12.2%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard. The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 1,216 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 14.3%, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,521,418 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 11,340 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 74.1% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 79.5% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,238 have required hospitalizations, with 14 new hospitalizations reported today.

Thirty hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,208 hospitalizations within the state, 3,994 have been on Oahu, 633 on Maui, 458 on the Big Island, 107 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 109 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 19 in intensive care units and 11 on ventilators. In a tweet today, Lt. Gov. Josh Green said 53 of the hospitalized coronavirus patients are fully vaccinated.


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


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