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JAMM AQUINO / JAN. 5
Pedestrians walk near the Hawaii State Capitol, where security is being ramped up amid the safety concerns.
UPDATED: 4 p.m.
The Hawaii Department of Health said in a news release that today’s three coronavirus-related deaths were on Oahu and Maui.
The latest fatalities included an Oahu woman in her 50s, an Oahu man in his 50s and a Maui man in his 60s — all with underlying health conditions when they were hospitalized with COVID-19, state health officials said.
No other details were immediately available regarding today’s new infections.
Meanwhile, city officials today confirmed another driver of TheBus on Oahu has tested positive for COVID-19. The State Department of Education also confirmed a student at Lanai High & Elementary in Lanai City has tested positive for COVID-19.
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Hawaii health officials today reported three new coronavirus-related deaths and 106 new infections, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 312 fatalities and 23,733 cases.
No further details were immediately available regarding the latest coronavirus-related deaths.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 244 fatalities on Oahu, 45 on Hawaii island, 19 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died on the mainland.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll was above 381,000 today with total coronavirus cases across the nation now topping 22.9 million.
Today’s new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 73 on Oahu, 11 on Maui, seven on the Big Island, two on Kauai and 13 state residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.
The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Monday.
The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 19,462 on Oahu, 2,037 in Hawaii County, 1,342 on Maui, 169 on Kauai, 106 on Lanai and 25 on Molokai. There are also 592 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Hawaii health officials said today that of the state’s total infection count, 2,292 cases were considered to be active. Health 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 decreasedby 13 today.
By island, Oahu has 1,690 active cases, Maui has 414, the Big Island has 164 and Kauai has 24, according to the state’s latest tally. Lanai has no active COVID cases.
Health officials counted 4,819 new COVID-19 test results in today’s tally, for a 2.20% statewide positivity rate. The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 3.2%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1,580 have required hospitalizations, with 19 new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.
Four hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1,576 hospitalizations within the state, 1,390 have been on Oahu, 92 on the Big Island, 81 on Maui, seven on Kauai, five on Lanai and one on Molokai.
According to the latest information from the department’s Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard, a total of 116 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of 8:30 a.m. today, with 26 in intensive care units and 22 on ventilators.
State health officials have started posting the total number of vaccinations administered statewide. As of today, the department said 40,386 individuals have been vaccinated — including 25,613 in Honolulu County, 4,182 in Maui County, 4,251 in Hawaii County, and 2,740 in Kauai County. The vaccination numbers are updated weekly.
Oahu moved to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Honolulu’s four-tier economic recovery plan on Oct. 22. To gauge whether Honolulu will move to a different tier, the city takes a “weekly assessment” of two key COVID-19 numbers each Wednesday. To move to Tier 3 from Tier 2, the 7-day average of new cases must be below 50 on two consecutive Wednesdays. Also, the 7-day average positivity rate must be below 2.5% on those two Wednesdays.
Today’s seven-day average case count for Oahu is 137 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 4.1%, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who said last week that Oahu will remain at Tier 2.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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