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Hawaii records 2 new coronavirus-related deaths and 155 new infections statewide

JAMM AQUINO / OCT. 2
                                A nearly empty shopping corridor is seen at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Gov. David Ige’s pre-travel testing program begins Oct. 15.

JAMM AQUINO / OCT. 2

A nearly empty shopping corridor is seen at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Gov. David Ige’s pre-travel testing program begins Oct. 15.

Hawaii Department of Health officials said today the state recorded two new coronavirus-related deaths and 155 new infections statewide, bringing the totals since the start of the pandemic to 166 deaths and 13,300 cases.

The latest Oahu deaths included a man in his 50s and a woman in her 80s, both with underlying health conditions and had been hospitalized with COVID-19, state health officials said later this afternoon.

Hilo Medical Center said this evening that the Big Island’s coronavirus-related death toll is now at 37. The medical center said that 27 deaths were from the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home, three deaths from the Life Care Center in Hilo, and six other deaths from the community at the Hilo Medical Center, and one death at the Kona Community Hospital. The state’s official coronavirus death toll counts only 15 Big Island deaths with Hawaii health officials saying the other reported cases are pending verification.

In addition to the 15 Big Island deaths, the official state death toll includes 138 on Oahu, and 12 on Maui, while one fatality was a Kauai resident who died on the mainland.

The U.S. coronavirus death toll is over 213,000 today.

As of today, 2,483 infections are considered active cases statewide, with a total of 10,651 patients now classified by health officials as “released from isolation,” or about 80.1% of those infected, according to the state’s official count. The category counts those infected people who have met the criteria for being released from isolation. Officials reported 47 new releases today.

Today’s new infection cases include 109 on Oahu, 45 on the Big Island and one diagnosed outside of the state.

Today’s total coronavirus cases by county since the start of the outbreak are 11,896 on Oahu, 911 in Hawaii County, 397 in Maui County, and 59 in Kauai County. There are also 37 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.

>> RELATED: Mayor Caldwell says Oahu could move to the next reopening level in two weeks

By county, Honolulu has seen 9,560 patients released from isolation, Hawaii County has had 669 releases, Maui has seen 364 patients released. Kauai has no active cases.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases, 911 have required hospitalizations, with 11 new hospitalizations — all on Oahu — reported today by state health officials. Two hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 909 hospitalizations in the state, 805 have been on Oahu, 56 on Maui, 47 on Hawaii island and one on Kauai.

Hilo Medical Center said in an email this evening that six COVID-positive patients were hospitalized on the Big Island, with one in the ICU and five others in the COVID unit.

According to the latest state health figures released as of 2:30 p.m. today, there were 29 coronavirus patients in intensive care units and 18 virus patients on ventilators in Hawaii.

Oahu’s seven-day average case count must stay below 100 and its positivity rate must be below 5% for 14 consecutive days to move to the next level of economic opening. According to Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Oahu’s seven-day average case count was 76 today, the 10th straight day below 100, while the seven-day average positivity rate was 3.3% today, the 16th straight day below 5%.

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