Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Thursday, November 21, 2024 81° Today's Paper


Top News

Hawaii records 1 new coronavirus-related death, 1,513 additional infections

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported one new coronavirus-related death and 1,513 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,181 fatalities and 219,288 cases.

The latest death was on Oahu. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest death.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 873 fatalities on Oahu, 164 on Hawaii island, 108 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 880,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 74 million.

Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count includes 956 new cases on Oahu, 159 on Hawaii island, 193 on Maui, 161 on Kauai, five on Molokai, seven on Lanai and 32 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 153,552 on Oahu, 23,466 on Hawaii island, 26,004 on Maui, 9,823 on Kauai, 862 on Molokai and 542 on Lanai. There are also 5,039 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 41,880 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 2,771.

By island, Oahu has 27,981 active cases, the Big Island has 4,757, Maui has 5,639, Kauai has 3,124, Molokai has 176 and Lanai has 203.

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 1.938, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 1,292, state health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,714,572 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 8,549 from Friday.

Health officials say that 74.8% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 81.9% have received at least one dose, and 34.5% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,617 have required hospitalizations, with five 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 5,585 hospitalizations within the state, 4,243 have been on Oahu, 702 on Maui, 514 on the Big Island, 110 on Kauai, 11 on Molokai and five on Lanai.

According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 344 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of today, with 53 in intensive care units and 33 on ventilators. On Friday, Hawaii had 373 hospitalized patients, including 54 in ICUs and 35 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.