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Hawaii reports 60 new coronavirus cases, bringing the statewide total to 27,699

COURTESY HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
                                State health officials on Wednesday received the first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine by Johnson & Johnson.
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COURTESY HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

State health officials on Wednesday received the first shipment of the coronavirus vaccine by Johnson & Johnson.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 60 new coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 27,699 cases.

State health officials reported no new coronavirus-related deaths as the statewide death toll remains at 441.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 351 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 33 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today was more than 519,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 28.8 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 36 on Oahu, 15 on Maui, four on Hawaii island, one on Kauai, and four residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii.

The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Tuesday.

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 22,026 on Oahu, 2,252 in Hawaii County, 2,255 on Maui, 184 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 847 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

As a result of updated information, health officials recategorized two Maui cases to diagnosed outside the state as well as one Maui case to Kauai and removed one Oahu case from the counts today.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 635 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 number of active cases in the state decreased by five today.

By island, Oahu has 342 active cases, Maui has 260, the Big Island has 29, and Kauai has four. Molokai and Lanai have no active cases.

Health officials counted 6,227 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 0.96% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,891 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.

Six hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,885 hospitalizations within the state, 1,634 have been on Oahu, 136 on Maui, 101 on the Big Island, eight on Kauai, five on Lanai and one on Molokai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 26 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Wednesday morning, with seven in intensive care units and three on ventilators.

The state’s Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said today that 380,310 vaccines have been administered of the 470,150 received by the state. About 15.7% of the general population in Hawaii has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while about 63% of those ages 75 and over have received one dose.

Of the administered vaccines, 357,020 were given to the general public and 23,290 were distributed through the federal pharmacy program, officials said.

Oahu moved into the less-restrictive Tier 3 of the city’s four-tier economic recovery plan Thursday after being in Tier 2 since Oct. 22. Tier 3 permits social and outdoor recreational gatherings of up to 10 people, and restaurants to seat 10 people at a table, up from five now. Tier 3 also allows funeral services with up to 25 attendees, and group fitness classes indoors with up to 10 participants. Gym capacity can increase to 50%. Restaurants and spiritual services can operate at full capacity as long as the establishments maintain 6 feet of distancing.

To gauge whether Honolulu will move to a different tier, the city takes a “weekly assessment” of two key COVID-19 numbers each Wednesday. To move from Tier 3 to the least-restrictive Tier 4, the 7-day average of new cases must be below 20 on two consecutive Wednesdays. Also, the 7-day average positivity rate must be below 1% on those two Wednesdays. The earliest that Oahu could move into Tier 1 would be late March since it needs to stay in each tier for at least four weeks.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 23 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 0.9%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.


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


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