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Hawaii sees 2,660 new coronavirus cases, bringing statewide total to 204,933

Hawaii Department of Health officials reported 2,660 new confirmed and probable coronavirus infections today, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 204,933 cases.

No new virus-related fatalities were reported today so the statewide COVID-19 death toll remains 1,146.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 845 fatalities on Oahu, 161 on Hawaii island, 106 on Maui, 21 on Kauai, two on Molokai and 11 Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

Hawaii 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 today is over 862,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 70.2 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 1,554 new cases on Oahu, 303 on Hawaii island, 456 on Maui, 285 on Kauai, 13 on Molokai, 16 on Lanai and 33 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 daily infection tally is usually from cases reported to the state two days earlier.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 144,320 on Oahu, 21,721 on Hawaii island, 24,147 on Maui, 8,719 on Kauai, 829 on Molokai and 473 on Lanai. There are also 4,724 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 55,723 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 decreased today by 902.

By island, Oahu has 39,055 active cases, the Big Island has 5,474, Maui has 7,427, Kauai has 3,271, Molokai has 289 and Lanai has 207.

Hawaii health officials said the state’s electronic data collection system for cases has become so overwhelmed by the number of test results that it stopped processing negative test results beginning Jan. 16. The move should provide a more accurate daily count of positive cases, officials said, but the change means that the state will not be able to calculate the case positivity rate.

The state’s 7-day average infection count is 4,006, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 2,678, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,684,480 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 12,183 from Friday.

Health officials say that 74.4% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 81.6% have received at least one dose, and 33.1% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,525 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations reported today.

Thirty-one hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,494 hospitalizations within the state, 4,193 have been on Oahu, 674 on Maui, 502 on the Big Island, 109 on Kauai, 11 on Molokai and five on Lanai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 400 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 49 in intensive care units and 34 on ventilators.


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


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