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Hawaii sees another day of triple-digit new COVID-19 infections and 3 additional coronavirus-related deaths

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / MARCH 25
                                Cindy Khanphaphanh of Times Pharmacy administers the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Paige Iwanaga at the Mililani Town Association Recreation Center 5.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / MARCH 25

Cindy Khanphaphanh of Times Pharmacy administers the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Paige Iwanaga at the Mililani Town Association Recreation Center 5.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 113 new infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 462 fatalities and 29,306 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths — two on Maui and one on Oahu.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 365 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 40 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 548,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 30.2 million.

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Today’s new statewide infection cases include 60 on Oahu, 30 on Maui, 14 on Hawaii island, one on Kauai and eight Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, according to health officials. As a result of updated information, one Oahu case was removed from the counts.

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

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 22,863 on Oahu, 2,753 on Maui, 2,432 in Hawaii County, 189 on Kauai, 110 on Lanai and 34 on Molokai. There are also 925 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state’s total infection count, 1,052 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 42 today.

By island, Oahu has 606 active cases, Maui has 327, the Big Island has 108, Molokai has six, Kauai has three and Lanai has two.

Health officials counted 6,391 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 1.77% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 1.6%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The state’s Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary said Thursday, the latest data available, that 568,376 vaccines have been administered of the 748,070 received by the state. About 25% 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 50% are age 60 or older. Of the administered vaccines, 543,446 were given to the general public and 24,930 were distributed through the federal pharmacy program, officials said.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,975 have required hospitalizations, with two 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 1,967 hospitalizations within the state, 1,681 have been on Oahu, 167 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 as of 12:39 p.m. today, a total of 39 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Thursday morning, with seven in intensive care units and four on ventilators.

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. Blangiardi on March 11 announced modifications to Tier 3, including allowing bars to reopen under the same conditions as restaurants and extending the curfew until midnight. The mayor on Friday announced updated Oahu guidelines to allow 100 people to attend outdoor weddings.

Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 49 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.8%, according to the mayor.


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


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