Hawaii records 1 new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 128 new infections
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / NOV. 1
A total of 228 empty chairs were placed in front of Central Union Church on Nov. 1, All Saints Day, in memory of Hawaii residents who have died with the COVID-19 infection. The Department of Health’s official state death toll was 220 as of Saturday, but the church’s memorial included chairs for additional people who have died on the Big Island but whose deaths have not been verified by the state as coronavirus-related.
Hawaii health officials reported one new coronavirus-related death on Oahu and 128 new infections statewide today, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 221 deaths and 15,947 cases.
The official state Department of Health death toll is now 221, with 170 fatalities on Oahu, 31 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui, and one Kauai resident who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency says that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll is 48, however, state health officials now have yet to verify coronavirus as a factor in 17 of those deaths.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll is now over 237,000, and the country saw a record of more than 126,000 new positive cases reported today, the fourth straight day that new cases topped more than 100,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Today’s new infection cases in Hawaii include 106 on Oahu, 19 on the Big Island, two on Maui, and one Hawaii resident diagnosed outside the state, according to the health department.
Today’s total coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 13,810 on Oahu, 1,405 in Hawaii County, 425 on Maui, 106 on Lanai, 71 on Kauai, and 17 on Molokai. There are also 113 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
As a result of updated information, a Hawaii resident diagnosed outside of the state was re-categorized to Oahu’s total, according to the department.
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Hawaii health officials said today 1,280 infections are currently considered active cases statewide. Health officials have replaced the “released from isolation” statistic, which had been used to calculate the number of active cases, with “cases in the past 14 days.” They said this new classification serves as a “proxy number for active cases” and is based on infections reported in the past 14 days. There were seven additional active cases reported today.
The Health Department says the number of active cases by county include: 975 on Oahu, 184 on the Big Island, 28 on Lanai, 24 on Maui, 10 on Kauai and 59 of the diagnosed residents outside the state.
Health Department officials said they tallied 4,724 COVID-19 tests in today’s infection case tally for a 2.7% statewide positivity rate.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 1,161 have required hospitalizations, with four new hospitalizations — three on Oahu and one on Kauai — reported today by state health officials.
Two hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,159 hospitalizations within the state, 1,025 have been on Oahu, 68 on the Big Island, 58 on Maui, four on Kauai, three on Lanai, and one on Molokai.
According to the latest data from the Health Department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 75 patients with COVID-19 are in Hawaii hospitals, with 13 in intensive care units and eight on ventilators.
Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Oct. 22, and must stay in that tier for four weeks. To move to Tier 3, Oahu must maintain a seven-day average case count of 49 or fewer cases, and a seven-day average positivity rate of 2.49% or lower for 14 consecutive days. Today’s seven-day average case count is 90 and the positivity rate was 3.1% for Oahu, according to the mayor.
On Saturday, when health officials reported 108 new infections on Oahu, Caldwell issued a statement calling for residents to not let their guard down.
“Now is not the time to give up,” he said. “Going into the next few months we have an opportunity to keep the numbers down and continue moving forward. I know this is difficult. I am asking everyone , if you gather, please gather safely. Gather in groups of five or less for now. Wear your face coverings even when you’re around your close friends. This won’t be forever, but if we all do our part now we can save lives, keep our community healthy, keep our economy open, and work toward a more normal way of life.”
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
