Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Thursday, December 12, 2024 81° Today's Paper


Top News

Hawaii records 3 new coronavirus-related deaths, 1,532 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 1,532 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,194 fatalities and 223,065 cases.

The three latest deaths were on Oahu. No further information was released regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 882 fatalities on Oahu, 164 on Hawaii island, 112 on Maui, 22 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 888,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 75.3 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 953 new cases on Oahu, 205 on Hawaii island, 138 on Maui, 170 on Kauai, seven on Molokai, 10 on Lanai and 49 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 156,007 on Oahu, 23,885 on Hawaii island, 26,474 on Maui, 10,089 on Kauai, 877 on Molokai and 563 on Lanai. There are also 5,170 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 30,836 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 4,217.

By island, Oahu has 20,663 active cases, the Big Island has 3,628, Maui has 3,902, Kauai has 2,369, Molokai has 105 and Lanai has 169.

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 between Jan. 16 and 30. 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.

State health officials said the positivity rate for each county is currently unavailable. As of Jan. 31, state health officials are using an interim method to calculate the statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average infection count is 1,567 and it’s seven-day average positivity rate is 10.9%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,730,356 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 5,586 from a day earlier.

Health officials say that 75% of the state’s population is now vaccinated, 82.2% have received at least one dose, and 35.1% have received a third dose of the booster.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,656 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 5,624 hospitalizations within the state, 4,264 have been on Oahu, 714 on Maui, 520 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 288 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 41 in intensive care units and 30 on ventilators. On Wednesday, there were 314 hospitalized virus patients, including 48 in ICUs and 31 on ventilators.


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


By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the Terms of Service. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our guidelines. Having trouble with comments? Learn more here.