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Hawaii records 2 new coronavirus-related deaths, 797 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new coronavirus-related deaths and 797 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,067 fatalities and 91,067 cases.

One of the latest deaths was on Oahu and one was on the Big Island. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 793 fatalities on Oahu, 147 on Hawaii island, 102 on Maui, 13 on Kauai, one on Molokai and 11 Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 800,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 50.3 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 712 new cases on Oahu, 29 on Hawaii island, 23 on Maui, 14 on Kauai and 19 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.

Today’s count are cases tallied by the department on Wednesday.

In a news conference today, Gov. David Ige said none of the new infections today were so-called backlogged cases from previous days. Thursday’s count of 395 new infections included about 130 backlogged cases due to a technical problem between Nov. 28 and Dec. 13.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 62,049 on Oahu, 11,981 on Hawaii island, 10,267 on Maui, 3,319 on Kauai, 258 on Molokai and 145 on Lanai. There are also 3,048 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 2,842 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 increased today by 673.

By island, Oahu has 2,242 active cases, the Big Island has 213, Kauai has 142, Maui has 231 and Molokai has 14.

Health officials counted 8,867 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 8.99% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 4.2%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 251 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 5.4%, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,453,379 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 6,141 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 73.3% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and 78.6% have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,152 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations reported today.

Thirty hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,122 hospitalizations within the state, 3,935 have been on Oahu, 617 on Maui, 453 on the Big Island, 102 on Kauai, 10 on Molokai and five on Lanai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 41 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with seven in intensive care units and five on ventilators.

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