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The Hawaii Department of Health today reported the state’s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases at 73 this past week compared with 70 on March 1.
The state’s average positivity rate — the percentage of all tests reported that were positive — remained the same as March 1 at 4.4%.
Seven more deaths were also reported, bringing the state’s coronavirus-related death toll to 1,841.
Metrics for COVID-19 appear to hold steady as a highly transmissible omicron subvariant, XBB.1.5, also known as “the Kraken,” continues to rise to dominance in Hawaii and across the U.S.
According to the latest variant report published by DOH on March 1, XBB.1.5 now makes up at least 47% of variants circulating statewide.
The department reported 510 new COVID-19 infections over the past week, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 380,608.
The seven-day average is based on an earlier set of seven days (Feb. 25 to March 3) than the week-over-week infection count (Feb. 28 to March 6) because cases from the most recent three days may not have been reported yet.
Actual numbers are also estimated to be several times higher since these figures do not include unreported home test kit results.
The number of cases per 100,000 in the state ticked up slightly to 5.2 compared to 4.9 the previous week.
By island, there were 345 more cases reported on Oahu, 65 on Hawaii island, 60 on Maui, 38 on Kauai, and two on Molokai. No infections were reported for Hawaii residents out of state.
To date, 78.6% of Hawaii’s total population has completed the primary series of COVID vaccinations, according to the Health Department. A total of 290,641 residents, representing 26% of the state’s eligible population, has received the updated bivalent booster.
The weekly average of COVID patients in hospitals remained at 39 per day, the same as the previous week, according to the Healthcare Association of Hawaii.
72