Health officials reported two more COVID-19 related deaths on Oahu and 261 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday.

The latest deaths were a man and woman in Honolulu, both who were older than 60, Department of Health Director Bruce Anderson confirmed Wednesday at a press conference.

On Oahu, where disease activity is most prevalent, 234 new COVID-19 diagnoses were made. Maui officials logged 20 new COVID-19 cases, and Big Island officials recorded seven. Kauai reported no new cases Wednesday.

Of the new cases verified Wednesday, 56 are attributed to the cluster of cases at The Oahu Community Correctional Center, the state’s largest jail facility.

DOH officials also noted 37 positive results from Tuesday are included in Wednesday’s count because of “laboratory reporting delays.”

There have been 43 deaths related to COVID-19 in the state to date, including 35 on Oahu and six on Maui. One Hawaii resident has died out of state.

There are approximately 3,632 active cases identified by health officials in the state.

State officials re-categorized a case on Maui to Oahu. A separate case was removed from Oahu’s cumulative infection count on Wednesday. The death reported on Oahu Wednesday is not yet reflected in the state’s tally, according to the DOH website.

An average of 237 new cases has been confirmed daily during the past week. The weekly average of new cases has risen steadily throughout the past several weeks. State officials have recorded more cases so far in August than all prior months combined.

U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, who chairs the House Health subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter to Gov. David Ige on Wednesday asking for more information about the state’s testing and contact tracing program.

The California congresswoman is pressing for answers on why Hawaii has such a high COVID-19 infection rate and whether the state mismanaged millions of dollars in federal stimulus money aimed at helping with virus prevention efforts.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health gave its most detailed report to date about the largest clusters of infection, many of which are ongoing.

Among the most recent outbreaks is one at Maui Memorial Medical Center, where 28 cases have been identified among staff and patients this week.  The facility had dozens of cases in a separate outbreak in March.

For the first time ever, the state also published new information about COVID-19 cases in various types of elderly care facilities. Approximately 94 people, including patients, staff members or visitors associated with local elderly care facilities have caught COVID-19, resulting in 27 hospitalizations and six deaths.

About 6.3% of all tests administered during the last seven days have returned positive for COVID-19, a moving average that has been on the rise in recent days, despite what appears to be a decline in the number of tests conducted.

For more information, check the Hawaii Department of Health COVID-19 site and the Hawaii Data Collaborative COVID-19 Tracking site.

Cases, Deaths And COVID-19 Testing In Hawaii

Hawaii COVID-19 Cases By County

Daily New COVID-19 Cases

Number Of Confirmed COVID–19 Cases In U.S.

COVID-19 Cases Worldwide

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