Hawaii records 10 new coronavirus-related deaths, 2,380 additional infections
Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 10 new coronavirus-related deaths and 2,380 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,159 fatalities and 211,267 cases.
Seven of the latest deaths were on Oahu, two were on the Big Island and one was on Kauai. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 853 fatalities on Oahu, 163 on Hawaii island, 107 on Maui, 22 on Kauai, two on Molokai and 12 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 870,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 72.3 million.
Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 1,424 new cases on Oahu, 375 on Hawaii island, 337 on Maui, 161 on Kauai, seven on Molokai, 16 on Lanai and 60 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.
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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 148,630 on Oahu, 22,388 on Hawaii island, 24,971 on Maui, 9,069 on Kauai, 843 on Molokai and 504 on Lanai. There are also 4,862 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.
Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 50,950 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 1,918.
By island, Oahu has 35,170 active cases, the Big Island has 5,386, Maui has 6,858, Kauai has 3,074, Molokai has 245 and Lanai has 217.
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 2,791, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 1,900, state health officials said today.
The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,701,119 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 6,830 from a day earlier.
Health officials say that 74.6% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 81.8% have received at least one dose, and 33.8% have received a third dose.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,574 have required hospitalizations, with 29 new hospitalizations reported today.
Thirty-two hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,542 hospitalizations within the state, 4,216 have been on Oahu, 691 on Maui, 509 on the Big Island, 110 on Kauai, 11 on Molokai and five on Lanai.
According to this afternoon’s update on the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 371 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 55 in intensive care units and 41 on ventilators. On Wednesday, there were 386 hospitalized virus patients, including 55 in ICUs and 40 on ventilators.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.