Hawaii reports 85 new coronavirus infections statewide and no new deaths
![JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Kahu Malama nurse Maile Toyama demonstrates how to self-administer a COVID-19 test at the Neal Blaisdell during todays final free COVID-19 surge testing.](https://staradvertiser.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/web1_113020-WEB-COVID-surge-testing.jpg)
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Kahu Malama nurse Maile Toyama demonstrates how to self-administer a COVID-19 test at the Neal Blaisdell during today’s final free COVID-19 surge testing.
Hawaii health officials today reported 85 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 17,925 cases.
No new deaths were reported today as the state’s coronavirus-related death toll remains at 244.
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The official state Department of Health coronavirus-related death toll includes 190 fatalities on Oahu, 34 on Hawaii island, 17 on Maui, one on Kauai, and two Hawaii residents who died on the mainland. The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said Saturday that the Big Island’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 49, however, state health officials have yet to verify coronavirus as a factor in 15 of those deaths.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll was more than 267,000 today as the nation recorded over 13.4 million cases.
Today’s new infection cases in Hawaii include 66 on Oahu, nine on Maui, four on the Big Island, four Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, one on Molokai, and one on Kauai, according to the Health Department.
The statistics released today reflect the new cases reported to the department through 11:59 p.m. Saturday.
Health officials counted 4,525 COVID-19 new test results, for a 1.87% statewide positivity rate.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 15,330 on Oahu, 1,599 in Hawaii County, 542 on Maui, 113 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai, and 18 on Molokai. There are also 217 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Hawaii health officials said that of the state’s total infection count, 1,243 cases are considered active statewide. Health officials say they consider infections reported in the past 14 days to be a “proxy number for active cases.” The total number of active cases dropped by 11 today.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,290 have required hospitalizations, with two new hospitalizations 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 1,288 hospitalizations within the state, 1,137 have been on Oahu, 78 on the Big Island, 61 on Maui, six 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 60 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of noon Friday, with 17 in intensive care units and 14 on ventilators.
Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Oct. 22. The mayor’s office says that 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, or percentage of tests coming back positive, must be below 2.5% on those two Wednesdays.
Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 66 and the positivity rate was 2.2%, according to Caldwell.