State Department of Health officials Monday said additional omicron variant coronavirus cases brought the statewide total of the highly transmissible variant to 50.
Forty-nine of Hawaii’s omicron cases were on Oahu.
The DOH reported 840 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 93,586 cases.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green wants mass booster vaccination and testing sites before Christmas in each county, which he called for Monday in a memorandum to Gov. David Ige, state Health Director Dr. Libby Char and Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara.
The state has enough resources from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to set up those types of programs, he said.
“We also have partnerships with key players like the Health Care Association, Hawaii Pacific Health, Queen’s (Medical Center), all of whom were doing, and have done large testing and vaccination sites,” he wrote.
“It stands to reason that now we’re seeing the large Omicron surge that we get as many people boosters as possible.”
While 73% of people in Hawaii have been fully vaccinated, only 22% have gotten their booster shot, according to Green.
“I think it would be practical and also a significant symbolic value to be able to give a booster to a lot of people before Christmas,” Green said.
Green said he also wants mandates at workplaces giving time off to anyone who gets side effects such as body aches and fatigue from the booster shot.
At a news conference late last week, Mayor Rick Blangiardi did not have plans to set up a mass vaccination site for booster shots on Oahu.
“It’s really hard to do before Christmas. It’s really a manpower issue,” he said. “We’re just going to encourage people who are available to get their third shots to get them.”
Green tweeted Monday that there were 58 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Hawaii hospitals, with 45 of them unvaccinated.
But updated Health Department data on the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s COVID-19 Information Hub showed 49 coronavirus patients in the hospital as of Monday, up from 41 on Friday. Of the 49 patients, nine were in intensive care units, and six were on ventilators.
Health officials strongly encourage COVID-19 booster shots for everyone eligible and say vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness, hospitalization and death in people who have contracted the omicron variant.
They continue to encourage people with even mild symptoms to say home, avoid other people and get tested. People who have been in close contact with those infected by COVID-19 should also be tested.
No new virus-related fatalities were reported Monday, so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remained 1,072.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 796 fatalities on Oahu, 147 on Hawaii island, 103 on Maui, 14 on Kauai, one on Molokai and 11 Hawaii residents who died outside the state. State Department of Health investigators find out the vaccination status of each positive case after the fact, which is why those statistics are not included side by side in the daily case counts, officials have previously said.
The U.S. coronavirus- related death toll was over 803,000, and the nationwide infection tally was more than 50.6 million.
New confirmed and probable infection counts by island include 742 new cases on Oahu, 26 on Hawaii island, 42 on Maui, 21 on Kauai, one on Molokai, three on Lanai and five Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.
By island, Oahu has 4,296 active cases, the Big Island has 239, Kauai has 158, Maui has 275, Molokai has 15 and Lanai has three.
Health officials counted 9,139 new COVID-19 test results in Monday’s tally, for a 9.19% statewide positivity rate.
The state’s seven-day average daily case count was 569, and the seven-day average testing positivity rate 6.6%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard. The seven-day average case count for Oahu was 507, and the seven-day average positivity rate 8.4%, state health officials said.
