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Hawaii reports 4 new coronavirus-related deaths, sets new record with 4,789 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported four new coronavirus-related deaths and 4,789 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,098 fatalities and 130,856 cases.

The total number of new confirmed and probable cases today marks a new record high. The previous record was 3,484 cases, set on Dec. 30.

All four 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 809 fatalities on Oahu, 153 on Hawaii island, 105 on Maui, 18 on Kauai, two 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 827,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 57.2 million.

>> RELATED: Hawaii hospitalization numbers skew people admitted for COVID-19

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 3,245 new cases on Oahu, 508 on Hawaii island, 676 on Maui, 213 on Kauai, 41 on Molokai, 17 on Lanai and 89 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 daily infection tally is usually from cases reported to the state two days earlier.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 93,240 on Oahu, 14,693 on Hawaii island, 13,782 on Maui, 4,665 on Kauai, 474 on Molokai and 231 on Lanai. There are also 3,771 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 32,768 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 3,161.

By island, Oahu has 25,878 active cases, the Big Island has 2,500, Maui has 2,859, Kauai has 1,242, Molokai has 212 and Lanai has 77.

Health officials counted 23,610 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 20.28% statewide positivity rate.

The state’s 7-day average infection count is 2,836.7 and its seven-day average positivity rate is 18.5%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 2,160 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 20.5%, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,572,330 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 8,292 from a day earlier.

Health officials say that 74.6% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 80.2% have received at least one dose, and 26.6% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,321 have required hospitalizations, with eight new hospitalizations reported today.

In a tweet today, Lt. Gov. Josh Green put the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide at 215, with 101 of them being vaccinated.

Thirty hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,291 hospitalizations within the state, 4,045 have been on Oahu, 649 on Maui, 474 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 235 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 23 in intensive care units and 12 on ventilators.


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


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