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Hawaii sees 720 new coronavirus cases, bringing statewide total to 62,949

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                Hawaii Pacific Health pharmacist Nicole Paiva readied syringes with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during a “Vax Squad” vaccination clinic, Aug. 16, at Aiea High School in Aiea.

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Hawaii Pacific Health pharmacist Nicole Paiva readied syringes with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during a “Vax Squad” vaccination clinic, Aug. 16, at Aiea High School in Aiea.

Hawaii Department of Health officials reported 720 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections today, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 62,949 cases.

No new virus-related fatalities were reported today so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remains 589.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 455 fatalities on Oahu, 68 on Maui, 59 on Hawaii island, three on Kauai, one on Molokai and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

>> RELATED: Hawaii officials consider stay-at-home order over Labor Day weekend as COVID-19 cases soar

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 637,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 38.9 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 468 new cases on Oahu, 73 on Maui, 139 on Hawaii island, 34 on Kauai and six Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.

State health officials have been including probable infections in its total case counts. Probable infections include people who never received a confirmatory test but are believed to have had the virus because of their known exposure and symptoms or because of a positive antigen test.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 44,334 on Oahu, 7,338 on Maui, 7,569 in Hawaii County, 1,277 on Kauai, 131 on Lanai and 159 on Molokai. There are also 2,141 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

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

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 10,946 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 state’s total number of active cases increased today by 129.

By island, Oahu has 7,362 active cases, the Big Island has 1,840, Maui has 1,165, Kauai has 402, Lanai has 12 and Molokai has 36.

Health officials counted 10,502 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 6.86%% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 8%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 1,863,219 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Sunday, up 14,788 from Friday. Health officials say that 63.1% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 71.4% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 3,446 have required hospitalizations, with two new hospitalizations reported today.

Seventeen hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 3,427 hospitalizations within the state, 2,782 have been on Oahu, 397 on Maui, 220 on the Big Island, 21 on Kauai, five on Lanai and two on Molokai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 429 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 86 in intensive care units and 67 on ventilators.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 609 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 8.7%, state health officials said today.


This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.


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