Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported a new coronavirus-related death and 115 additional infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 407 deaths and 25,656 cases.
No further details were available on the latest death on Oahu.
The official number of coronavirus-related deaths in the state includes 325 deaths on Oahu, 53 on the island of Hawaii, 25 on Maui, one on Kauai and three Hawaii residents who died on the mainland.
The number of coronavirus-related deaths in the United States was more than 434,000 today.
New cases of infection across the state reported by the Department of Health include 75 on Oahu, 24 on Maui, five on Ilha Grande and 11 residents diagnosed outside Hawaii, officials said.
The statistics released today reflect the new cases of infection reported to the department on Wednesday.
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The total number of coronavirus cases per island since the outbreak started is 20,782 in Oahu, 2,144 in Hawaii County, 1,706 in Maui, 178 in Kauai, 107 in Lanai and 25 in Molokai. There are also 714 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.
Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,501 cases were considered active. Officials say they regard infections reported in the past 14 days as a “proxy number for active cases”. The number of active cases in the state has decreased by 38 today.
By island, Oahu has 1,098 active cases, Maui has 307, Ilha Grande has 89, Kauai has six, Lanai has one, according to the state’s latest count. Molokai has no active COVID cases.
State health officials said on Thursday that they are investigating two separate COVID-19 clusters in Maui County, with a total of nine cases involving hotel employees; two separate clusters with 18 total cases in unidentified food suppliers; two separate clusters with a total of 14 cases in unidentified restaurants; three separate clusters with 20 total cases in construction and industrial environments; and four separate clusters with 123 total cases in apartment complexes.
In Oahu, health officials are investigating a large cluster with 678 cases in total in correctional units; two separate clusters with 31 cases in total in unidentified restaurants; and a cluster with 13 cases in total in an unidentified residential facility.
Health officials counted 15,171 new COVID-19 test results in today’s count, for a positivity rate of 0.76% across the state. The state’s average 7-day positivity rate is 2.5%, according to Hawaii’s COVID-19 data panel.
Of all confirmed cases of infection in Hawaii, 1,683 required hospitalizations, with one hospitalization less reported today by state health officials.
Four hospitalizations in the state count are Hawaii residents who have been diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,679 hospitalizations in the state, 1,473 occurred on Oahu, 98 on Maui, 95 on Ilha Grande, seven on Kauai, five on Lanai and one on Molokai.
According to the latest information from the department’s COVID-19 data panel in Hawaii, a total of 83 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals on Thursday morning, 20 in intensive care units and 16 in ventilators.
Health officials said that as of Sunday, 106,654 vaccines had been administered out of 170,975 received by the state. Vaccinations administered by county are Honolulu, 68,521; Maui, 11,060; Hawaii, 10,459 and Kauai, 8,799. The total also included several thousand administered by the federal pharmacy program. State officials release updated vaccination numbers checked every Wednesday.
Oahu moved to the less restrictive Tier 2 of Honolulu’s four-tier economic recovery plan on October 22. To assess whether Honolulu will move to a different level, the city does a “weekly assessment” of two main COVID-19 numbers every Wednesday. To move to Level 3 from Level 2, the average 7 days of new cases must be less than 50 on two consecutive Wednesdays. In addition, the average 7-day positivity rate should be less than 2.5% on those two Wednesdays.
The average seven-day case count for Oahu is 79 and the average seven-day positivity rate is 2.9%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
Blangiardi said he hopes to remain at Level 2, a four-level structure established by former Mayor Kirk Caldwell. Under Level 3, social gatherings of up to 10 would be allowed, 5 at Level 2, and retail companies would be able to operate at full capacity, instead of 50% of capacity at Level 2.
This breaking news will be updated as more information becomes available.