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Hawaii reports 129 additional coronavirus infections statewide

JAMM AQUINO / JAN. 16
                                People watched high surf, Saturday, at Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore while practicing limited social distancing.
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JAMM AQUINO / JAN. 16

People watched high surf, Saturday, at Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore while practicing limited social distancing.

Hawaii health officials today reported 129 new coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 24,482 cases.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll remains at 322 with no new deaths reported today.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 253 fatalities on Oahu, 45 on Hawaii island, 20 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said Monday that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll remained at 51, but state officials have not verified coronavirus as a factor in six of those fatalities. Hawaii County has reported no coronavirus-related deaths in the past two weeks.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll was more than 399,000 today with total coronavirus cases across the nation nearing 24 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 83 on Oahu, 21 on Maui, nine on the Big Island, two on Kauai, and 14 residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 19,974 on Oahu, 2,082 in Hawaii County, 1,478 on Maui, 175 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 25 on Molokai. There are also 642 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 2,232 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 increased by 41 today.

By island, Oahu has 1,637 active cases, Maui has 410, the Big Island has 156, Kauai has 26 and Molokai has three, according to the state’s latest tally. Lanai has no active COVID cases.

Health officials counted 4,307 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 3% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 2.6%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,614 have required hospitalizations, with two new hospitalizations on Maui and one new hospitalization on Hawaii island reported today by state health officials.

Four hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,610 hospitalizations within the state, 1,416 have been on Oahu, 93 on the Big Island, 88 on Maui, seven 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 108 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of 8:30 a.m. Friday, with 20 in intensive care units and 18 on ventilators.

State health officials have started posting the total number of vaccinations administered statewide. As of Wednesday, the department said 40,386 individuals have been vaccinated since Jan. 9 — including 25,613 in Honolulu County, 4,182 in Maui County, 4,251 in Hawaii County, and 2,740 in Kauai County. The vaccination numbers are updated weekly.

Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Honolulu’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Oct. 22. 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 to Tier 3 from Tier 2, the 7-day average of new cases must be below 50 on two consecutive Wednesdays. Also, the 7-day average positivity rate must be below 2.5% on those two Wednesdays.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 95 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 3.2%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

Blangiardi said last week he hoped to stay in Tier 2, a four-tiered framework established by former Mayor Kirk Caldwell. Under Tier 3, social gatherings of up to 10 would be allowed, up from 5 under Tier 2, and retail businesses would be able to operate at full capacity, rather than 50% capacity under Tier 2.

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