Health officials reported 130 new COVID-19 cases statewide on Friday and one fatality on Oahu.
Among the cases recorded Thursday were 105 on Oahu, seven on the Big Island, 11 on Maui, one on Kauai and six Hawaii residents diagnosed out of state.
The official state death toll is 281. Civil Beat calculates at least 286 people have died from the disease in Hawaii, including five deaths on Hawaii island that are still pending medical verification by the state. Hawaii County Civil Defense has recorded 49 deaths on the Big Island.
An outbreak at an Oahu correctional facility continues to influence Oahu’s weekly case and testing rates — two metrics that determine when the island will loosen some COVID-19 restrictions. Nine more cases were reported Wednesday afternoon at Halawa Correctional Facility, marking at least 179 cases associated with it to date. Approximately 1,633 people at Halawa have been tested.
Oahu remains in Tier 2 of its reopening plan. The island’s case rate increased Friday to a weekly average of 101 new cases reported daily. Approximately 3.6% of tests conducted on the island were positive last week. The island must see a testing positivity rate of 2.49% or lower for two consecutive weeks to enter Tier 3, which would loosen some restrictions.
According to Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Health, the COVID-19 case reports are based on test results from laboratories statewide and include both residents and tourists.
Hawaii residents who test positive out of state also are included, as well as cases confirmed among military service members and their families, although military cases are not specifically identified.
If a visitor takes a test outside of Hawaii, those test results are reported to the home state and would not be reflected in the Hawaii’s reports. In some cases, rapid point-of-care testing results are not submitted to the health department and are not included in these daily reports either.
There were 1,489 cases recorded during the past two weeks — a metric that the health department uses as a proxy to estimate how many people have active infections.
For more information, check this Hawaii Department of Health COVID-19 site or this state site, and the Hawaii Data Collaborative COVID-19 Tracking site. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency also provides this comprehensive dashboard.
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