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Hawaii records 9 new coronavirus-related deaths, 1,860 additional infections

STAR-ADVERTISER / JAN. 20
                                Vials to collect nasal swabs from COVID-19 tests are seen during a vaccination and testing clinic at Palama Settlement in Honolulu.
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STAR-ADVERTISER / JAN. 20

Vials to collect nasal swabs from COVID-19 tests are seen during a vaccination and testing clinic at Palama Settlement in Honolulu.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported nine new coronavirus-related deaths and 1,860 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,173 fatalities and 215,034 cases.

All nine fatalities were recorded on Oahu. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 867 fatalities on Oahu, 163 on Hawaii island, 107 on Maui, 22 on Kauai, two on Molokai, and 12 Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The DOH today said an electronic laboratory reporting system error occurred between Jan. 26 and 27, resulting in incomplete case counts. The department anticipates a catch-up in reports and case counts over the next two to five days.

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 883,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 74.1 million.

>> RELATED: Department of Health confirms BA.2 omicron variant in Hawaii

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 1,172 new cases on Oahu, 293 on Hawaii island, 246 on Maui, 101 on Kauai, 16 on Lanai, four on Molokai, and 28 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 150,792 on Oahu, 22,913 on Hawaii island, 25,554 on Maui, 9,445 on Kauai, 852 on Molokai, and 529 on Lanai. There are also 4,949 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 46,297 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 3,286.

By island, Oahu has 31,261 active cases, the Big Island has 5,099, Maui has 6,342, Kauai has 3,155, Molokai has 220, and Lanai has 220.

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 2,155, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 1,411, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,706,023 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Friday, up 4,904 from a day earlier.

Health officials say that 74.7% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 81.8% have received at least one dose, and 34.1% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,598 have required hospitalizations, with five 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 5,566 hospitalizations within the state, 4,228 have been on Oahu, 701 on Maui, 511 on the Big Island, 110 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 373 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Friday, with 53 in intensive care units and 35 on ventilators.

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