Hawaii health officials today reported four new coronavirus-related deaths and 134 new infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 336 deaths and 25,003 cases.
No additional details were immediately available about the latest coronavirus-related deaths, all on Oahu.
The official number of coronavirus-related deaths in the state includes 266 deaths on Oahu, 45 on the island of Hawaii, 21 on Maui, one on Kauai and three Hawaii residents who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said the number of COVID-19 deaths on Ilha Grande remains at 51, but state officials have not verified coronavirus as a factor in six of those deaths. Hawaii County has reported no coronavirus-related deaths in the past three weeks.
The number of coronavirus-related deaths in the United States was more than 416,000 today.
New cases of infection across the state reported by the Department of Health include 105 on Oahu, 21 on Maui, two on Ilha Grande and six residents diagnosed outside Hawaii, officials said. As a result of the updated information, an Oahu case was removed from the counts.
The statistics released today reflect the new cases of infection reported to the department on Thursday.
Hawaii health officials said on Friday that they are investigating five COVID-19 groups in correctional facilities, educational settings, unidentified restaurants and food suppliers on Oahu; seven clusters involving industrial and construction configurations, along with apartment complexes in Maui County; and a travel group in Hawaii County. No clusters were under investigation for Kauai County.
The total number of coronavirus cases per island since the outbreak started is 20,334 in Oahu, 2,115 in Hawaii County, 1,571 in Maui, 177 in Kauai, 106 in Lanai and 25 in Molokai. There are also 675 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.
Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,736 cases were considered 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 has decreased by 102 today.
By island, Oahu has 1,272 active cases, Maui has 324, Ilha Grande has 121, Kauai has 19, according to the state’s latest count. Lanai and Molokai have no active COVID cases.
Health officials counted 4,974 new results from the COVID-19 test in today’s count, for a positivity rate of 2.69% across the state. The state’s average 7-day positivity rate is also 2.5%, according to Hawaii’s COVID-19 data panel.
Of all confirmed cases of infection in Hawaii, 1,657 required hospitalizations, with 10 new hospitalizations 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 1,653 hospitalizations in the state, 1,449 occurred in Oahu, 97 in Maui, 94 in Ilha Grande, seven in Kauai, five in Lanai and one in Molokai.
According to the latest information from the Department of Hawaii’s COVID-19 data panel, a total of 96 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals on Friday morning, with 21 in intensive care units and 18 on ventilators.
Health officials said 70,095 vaccines were administered out of 154,150 received by the state by January 18. Vaccines by county are: Honolulu, 39,886; Maui, 10,195; Hawaii, 7,011; and Kauai, 5,328. The total also included 7,675 administered by the federal pharmacy program. State officials release updated vaccination numbers every Wednesday.
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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 7-day average 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 76 and the average seven-day positivity rate is 3.0%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
Blangiardi said last week that he hoped 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 on 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.