Hawaii records 4 new coronavirus-related deaths, 916 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported four new coronavirus-related deaths and 916 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,226 fatalities and 226,451 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 906 fatalities on Oahu, 167 on Hawaii island, 116 on Maui, 22 on Kauai, three 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 902,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 76.4 million.

>> RELATED: HPD to offer free COVID-19 tests at Chinatown substation

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 537 new cases on Oahu, 155 on Hawaii island, 107 on Maui, 95 on Kauai, one on Molokai, three on Lanai and 18 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 157,993 on Oahu, 24,418 on Hawaii island, 26,866 on Maui, 10,436 on Kauai, 887 on Molokai, and 573 on Lanai. There are also 5,278 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 22,808 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 by 2,306 today.

By island, Oahu has 14,834 active cases, the Big Island has 2,862, Maui has 2,927,Kauai has 2,000, Molokai has 70, and Lanai has 115.

Hawaii health officials said the state’s electronic data collection system for cases became so overwhelmed by the number of test results that it stopped processing negative test results between Jan. 16 and 30. The move was designed to provide a more accurate daily count of positive cases, officials said, but the change meant the state was not be able to calculate the case positivity rate.

The state’s 7-day average infection count is 1,165 and it’s seven-day average positivity rate is 9.1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,734,242 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Friday, up 3,886 from a day earlier.

Health officials say that 75% of the state’s population is now vaccinated, 82% have received at least one dose, and 35% have received a third dose of the booster.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,711 have required hospitalizations, with 13 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 5,679 hospitalizations within the state, 4,294 have been on Oahu, 726 on Maui, 530 on the Big Island, 113 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 283 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Friday, with 34 in intensive care units and 21 on ventilators.

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