Hawaii health officials reported 127 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, all on Oahu except for 2 new cases on Hawaii island, and one on Kauai. There were four deaths, all on Oahu.

The Department of Health has recorded 131 COVID-19 related fatalities to date, but that does not include many of the deaths reported on Hawaii island. Civil Beat calculates 144 deaths so far, which includes more than a dozen from the outbreak at Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo.

Avalon Health Care and the public authority that operates Hilo Medical Center, the Hawaii Health Systems Corp., announced an agreement Friday to transfer management of the veterans home to the East Hawaii Region of the HHSC.

New data on the Department of Health’s dashboard shows there are 1,761 active cases of COVID-19 in Hawaii and that it’s trending downward. The state has identified 12,018 cases to date.

Oahu began to reopen some businesses on Thursday and allow gatherings of up to five people. The island is using a new framework to guide reopening based on two metrics: the average number of daily cases and the average number of tests that return positive each week — a figure referred to as the positivity rate.

The plan has four categories or tiers for reopening. If Oahu has a seven-day average of more than 100 cases a day and a seven-day positivity rate of 5% or higher, it will be in the most severe category. In Tier 1, restaurant dining is restricted to members of the same household, and more stringent restrictions are placed on commercial activities.

To reach Tier 4, the most relaxed tier, the island needs a seven-day average positivity rate of less than 1% and an average of less than 20 daily new cases.

Honolulu — where the COVID-19 disease activity has been most prevalent — will begin at Tier 1, although its current metrics show the situation is not as severe. According to the plan, the city must stay in each tier for at least four weeks before it moves to another tier with more relaxed restrictions.

Last week, approximately 3.1% of COVID-19 tests on Oahu returned positive, and the island saw an average of 87 new cases reported daily. Those tests were part of a federal free testing initiative and contributed to a lower overall positivity rate.

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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