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Hawaii sets record with 6,252 new coronavirus cases, bringing state’s total to 180,838

Hawaii Department of Health officials reported 6,252 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections today, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 180,838 cases.

Today’s case count is a new single-day record for Hawaii, surpassing the previous record of 5,977 infections on Jan. 15.

On Saturday, Hawaii health officials said the state’s electronic data collection system for cases has become so overwhelmed by the number of test results that it will stop processing negative test results beginning Sunday. The move should provide a more accurate daily count of positive cases, but the change means that the state will not be able to calculate the case positivity rate, officials said.

No new virus-related fatalities were reported today so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remains 1,126.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 828 fatalities on Oahu, 159 on Hawaii island, 106 on Maui, 20 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 847,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 65.2 million.

>> RELATED: Health care reinforcements begin arriving in Hawaii

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 3,949 new cases on Oahu, 834 on Hawaii island, 816 on Maui, 547 on Kauai, 24 on Molokai, 10 on Lanai and 72 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 128,090 on Oahu, 19,249 on Hawaii island, 20,805 on Maui, 7,241 on Kauai, 705 on Molokai and 349 on Lanai. There are also 4,399 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 55,651 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 4,707.

By island, Oahu has 39,900 active cases, the Big Island has 5,170, Maui has 7,224, Kauai has 2,901, Molokai has 303 and Lanai has 153.

The state’s 7-day average infection count is 4,171, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 2,957, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,652,196 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 10,799 from a day earlier.

Health officials say that 75.3% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 81.1% have received at least one dose, and 30.5% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,434 have required hospitalizations, with no new hospitalizations reported today.

Thirty-one hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,403 hospitalizations within the state, 4,126 have been on Oahu, 661 on Maui, 492 on the Big Island, 108 on Kauai, 11 on Molokai and five on Lanai.

According to this afternoon’s update from the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 365 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 41 in intensive care units and 22 on ventilators. On Friday, when the state last reported the hospitalization data, there were a total of 346 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals, with 41 in ICUs and 19 on ventilators


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


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