Hawaii records 2 new coronavirus-related deaths and 44 additional COVID-19 infections

Feb. 27—UPDATE : 3 :16 p.m.

Hawaii Department of Health officials this afternoon said the latest deaths were an Oahu man in his 60s and another Maui man also in his 60s both of whom had underlying health conditions. No further details were revealed.

Hawaii health officials referred to CDC in defining "underlying medical conditions, " such as cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, down syndrome, heart conditions, weakened immune system from a solid organ transplant, obesity, severe obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking and Type 2 diabetes.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 testing continues at all correctional facilities statewide. The Maui Community Correctional Center reported 19 positive cases and 11 inmates who recovered from the virus.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported two new-related deaths and 44 new infections, bringing the state's totals since the start of the pandemic to 437 fatalities and 27, 399 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths on Oahu and Maui.

The state's official coronavirus-related death toll includes 347 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 33 on Maui, one on Kauai, and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today was over 509, 000 and the nationwide infection tally is over 28 million.—RELATED :

Today's new statewide infection cases reported by the Health Department include 25 on Oahu, 15 on Maui, one on the Big Island, one on Kauai and two residents diagnosed outside of Hawaii, officials said.

As a result of updated information, one case on Oahu was recategorized to Hawaii island, while two cases on Oahu and one case on Hawaii island were removed from the counts.

The statistics released today reflect the new infection cases reported to the department on Wednesday.

The total number of coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 21, 892 on Oahu, 2, 237 in Hawaii County, 2, 121 on Maui, 183 on Kauai, 108 on Lanai and 27 on Molokai. There are also 831 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that of the state's total infection count, 613 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 number of active cases in the state decreased by 21 today.

By island, Oahu has 384 active cases, Maui has 197, the Big Island has 27, Kauai has four, and Molokai has one, according to the state's latest tally. Lanai has no active cases.

Health officials counted 4, 768 new COVID-19 test results in today's tally, for a 0.92 % statewide positivity rate. The state's 7-day average positivity rate is 1.2 %, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 1, 862 have required hospitalizations, with four new hospitalizations reported today by state health officials.

Six hospitalizations in the statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 1, 856 hospitalizations within the state, 1, 613 have been on Oahu, 128 on Maui, 101 on the Big Island, eight 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 34 patients with the virus were in Hawaii hospitals as of Thursday morning, with five in intensive care units and five on ventilators.

According to the state's verified weekly Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary, 326, 766 vaccines have been administered of the 404, 090 received by the state as of Feb. 25. About 14.1 % of the general population in Hawaii has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while about 60 % of those ages 75 and over have received one dose.

Of the administered vaccines, 304, 899 were given to the general public and 21, 867 were distributed through the federal pharmacy program, officials said.

Oahu moved into the less-restrictive Tier 3 of the city's four-tier economic recovery plan Thursday after being in Tier 2 since Oct. 22. Tier 3 permits social and outdoor recreational gatherings of up to 10 people, and restaurants to seat 10 people at a table, up from five now. Tier 3 also allows funeral services with up to 25 attendees, and group fitness classes indoors with up to 10 participants. Gym capacity can increase to 50 %. Restaurants and spiritual services can operate at full capacity as long as the establishments maintain 6 feet of distancing.

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 from Tier 3 to the least-restrictive Tier 4, the 7-day average of new cases must be below 20 on two consecutive Wednesdays. Also, the 7-day average positivity rate must be below 1 % on those two Wednesdays. The earliest that Oahu could move into Tier 1 would be late March since it needs to stay in each tier for at least four weeks.

Today's seven-day average case count for Oahu is 26 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.0 %, according to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.------This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.------