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Hawaii records 69 new coronavirus infections as statewide tally climbs to 28,421

JAMM AQUINO / MARCH 7
                                Pedestrians, some with masks and some without, walk along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. Hawaii tourism saw a solid bump in air travel last week when it realized the highest three-day tourism streak since the pandemic began.⁠

JAMM AQUINO / MARCH 7

Pedestrians, some with masks and some without, walk along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. Hawaii tourism saw a solid bump in air travel last week when it realized the highest three-day tourism streak since the pandemic began.⁠

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 69 new coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s total since the start of the pandemic to 28,421 cases.

State health officials reported no new coronavirus-related deaths as the statewide death toll remains at 451.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 359 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 35 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today was more than 537,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 29.5 million.

Today’s new statewide infection cases include 38 on Oahu, 23 on Maui, four on Hawaii island, one on Lanai and three Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, according to health officials. As a result of updated information, state health officials re-categorized one case from outside the state to Maui in the counts.

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

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The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 22,380 on Oahu, 2,488 on Maui, 2,347 in Hawaii County, 187 on Kauai, 109 on Lanai and 28 on Molokai. There are also 882 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 753 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 number of active cases in the state increased by 44 today.

By island, Oahu has 399 active cases, Maui has 250, the Big Island has 99, Kauai has three, Lanai has one, and Molokai has one.

Health officials counted 4,853 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.42% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,940 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.

Eight hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,932 hospitalizations within the state, 1,659 have been on Oahu, 154 on Maui, 105 on the Big Island, eight on Kauai, five on Lanai and one on Molokai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 22 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Tuesday morning, with four in intensive care units and three on ventilators.

The state’s Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said today that 494,257 vaccines have been administered of the 629,000 received by the state. About 21% of the general population in Hawaii has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Of those who have received at least one vaccine dose so far, 50% are age 59 or younger, while the other half are age 60 or older.

Of the administered vaccines, 469,750 were given to the general public and 24,507 were distributed through the federal pharmacy program, officials said.

Oahu moved into the less-restrictive Tier 3 of the city’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Feb. 25 after being in Tier 2 since Oct. 22. Tier 3 permits social and outdoor recreational gatherings of up to 10 people, and restaurants to seat 10 people at a table, up from five now. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi on Thursday announced modifications to Tier 3, including allowing bars to reopen under the same conditions as restaurants and extending the curfew until midnight.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 30 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.0%, according to Blangiardi.


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


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