Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new coronavirus-related deaths and 972 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,072 fatalities and 92,746 cases.
State health officials said today marked the highest single-day case count since Sept. 2 when 1,068 COVID-19 cases were reported. The latest surge in COVID-19 cases have been attributed to holiday gatherings, large indoor events, increased traveling, loosened restrictions and the combined omicron and delta variants spreading in the community, state health officials said today. Meanwhile, health officials today also reported a cluster of 30 COVID-19 cases tied to recent concerts at The Republik nightclub and urged concertgoers to get tested for the virus regardless of symptoms and vaccination status.
No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths — one on Maui and another on Kauai.
The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 796 fatalities on Oahu, 147 on Hawaii island, 103 on Maui, 14 on Kauai, one on Molokai, and 11 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 806,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 50.8 million.
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Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 877 new cases on Oahu, 29 on Hawaii island, 38 on Maui, 14 on Kauai, and 14 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 total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 63,548 on Oahu, 12,032 on Hawaii island, 10,337 on Maui, 3,355 on Kauai, 258 on Molokai, and 145 on Lanai. There are also 3,071 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.
Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 4,237 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 820.
By island, Oahu has 3,604 active cases, the Big Island has 227, Kauai has 150, Maui has 242, Molokai has 14, and Lanai has none.
The state’s 7-day average positivity rate is 6.2%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.
The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 19 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 2.9%, 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 Friday, 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, 5,173 have required hospitalizations, with 11 new hospitalizations reported today.
Thirty hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,143 hospitalizations within the state, 3,950 have been on Oahu, 620 on Maui, 454 on the Big Island, 104 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 Friday, with seven in intensive care units and five on ventilators.
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.