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Hawaii records 3 new coronavirus-related deaths, 2,050 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 2,050 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,149 fatalities and 208,887 cases.

One of the deaths was on Maui, one was on Oahu and one was out of state. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 846 fatalities on Oahu, 161 on Hawaii island, 107 on Maui, 21 on Kauai, two on Molokai and 12 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 867,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 71.8 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 1,441 new cases on Oahu, 150 on Hawaii island, 317 on Maui, 99 on Kauai, five on Molokai nine on Lanai and 29 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 147,206 on Oahu, 22,013 on Hawaii island, 24,634 on Maui, 8,908 on Kauai, 836 on Molokai and 488 on Lanai. There are also 4,802 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 52,868 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 decreased today by 1,751.

By island, Oahu has 36,970 active cases, the Big Island has 5,275, Maui has 7,038, Kauai has 3,121, Molokai has 256 and Lanai has 208.

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 stopped processing negative test results beginning Jan. 16. The move should provide a more accurate daily count of positive cases, officials said, but the change means that the state will not be able to calculate the case positivity rate.

The state’s 7-day average infection count is 3,282, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 2,244, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,694,289 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 3,169 from a day earlier.

Health officials say that 74.5% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 81.7% have received at least one dose, and 33.5% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,545 have required hospitalizations, with 16 new hospitalizations reported today.

Thirty-two hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,513 hospitalizations within the state, 4,203 have been on Oahu, 678 on Maui, 507 on the Big Island, 109 on Kauai, 11 on Molokai and five on Lanai.

According to this afternoon’s update from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 386 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 55 in intensive care units and 40 on ventilators. On Tuesday, there were 390 hospitalized virus patients, including 49 in ICUs and 40 on ventilators.


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


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