Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Thursday, November 21, 2024 77° Today's Paper


Top News

Hawaii records 5 new coronavirus-related deaths, 1,907 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported five new coronavirus-related deaths and 1,907 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,164 fatalities and 213,174 cases.

All five of the latest deaths were on Oahu. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 858 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 874,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 72.8 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 990 cases on Oahu, 232 on Hawaii island, 337 on Maui, 275 on Kauai, five on Molokai, nine on Lanai and 59 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 149,620 on Oahu, 22,620 on Hawaii island, 25,308 on Maui, 9,344 on Kauai, 848 on Molokai, and 513 on Lanai. There are also 4,921 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 44,501 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 6,449.

By island, Oahu has 30,091 active cases, the Big Island has 4,805, Maui has 6,131, Kauai has 3,054, Molokai has 216 and Lanai has 204.

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 2,421, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 1,584, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,706,023 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 4,904 from a day earlier.

Health officials say that 74.7% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 81.8% have received at least one dose, and 34.1% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,593 have required hospitalizations, with 19 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 5,561 hospitalizations within the state, 4,227 have been on Oahu, 697 on Maui, 511 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 373 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 53 in intensive care units and 35 on ventilators. On Thursday, there were 372 hospitalized virus patients, including 55 in ICUs and 41 on ventilators.


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


By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the Terms of Service. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our guidelines. Having trouble with comments? Learn more here.