Hawaii’s COVID-19 death toll surpasses 1,700 with 3 new deaths; 2,211 infections reported for week

The Hawaii Department of Health today reported 2,211 new COVID-19 infections over the past week, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 360,490.

The weekly number of new cases was more than double what was reported for the previous week, but reflects a backlog of positive test results over the past year, health officials said.

The department also reported three more deaths, bringing the state’s coronavirus-related death toll since the start of the pandemic to 1,702.

The state’s seven-day average of new cases, meanwhile, ticked up to 151 compared with 145 reported on Oct. 12.

The average is based on an earlier set of seven days (Oct. 8 to 14) than the week-over-week infection count (Oct. 11 to 17) because cases from the most recent three days may not have been reported yet.

Actual numbers are also estimated to be higher since these figures do not include unreported home test kit results.

The state’s average positivity rate remained about the same, at 5.8% compared with 5.6% reported the previous week.

The number of cases per 100,000 in the state was also about the same, at 10.6 compared with 10.3 the previous week.

By island in the latest week, there were 1,588 cases reported on Oahu, 372 on Hawaii island, 142 on Maui, 66 on Kauai, and two on Molokai. Another 41 infections were reported for out-of-state Hawaii residents.