HAWAII VIRUS TRACKER — Dec. 22: 66 New COVID-19 Cases

No new fatalities were reported.

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Health officials reported 66 new COVID-19 cases statewide on Tuesday including 51 on Oahu, six on Hawaii island, seven on Maui, and two residents diagnosed out of state.

Many of the recent cases on Oahu have been associated with an outbreak at Halawa Correctional Facility. Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Monday that the cases at Halawa will not affect any decision to return Oahu to the restrictive Tier 1 in its reopening strategy.

The Department of Health will continue to include cases at correctional facilities as part of its daily report, health officials told Civil Beat.

The Department of Public Safety offers daily statistics on COVID-19 in Hawaii correctional facilities and reports 329 people have contracted the COVID-19 virus among the 2,079 people tested to date at Halawa Correctional Facility — a cumulative 16% positivity rate.

Gov. David Ige said Monday at a press conference that he agreed with Caldwell that Oahu’s reopening strategy didn’t need to weigh case counts among an isolated inmate population, but said officials should continue to consider cases among correctional facility staff members.

Reporting Lag

Civil Beat’s virus tracker is updated when the state releases its daily numbers. The state posts new data daily at noon. The daily reports reflect laboratory results collected up until 11:59 p.m. two days prior, leaving a 36-hour lag between when results are submitted to the Department of Health and when the state reports them publicly.

The official state death toll remains at 282. Civil Beat calculates at least 287 people have died from the disease in Hawaii, including five deaths on Hawaii island that are still pending medical verification by the state. Hawaii County Civil Defense has recorded 49 deaths on the Big Island.

Oahu remains in Tier 2 of its reopening plan but could revert back to Tier 1 with harsher restrictions if the island’s upward trend in cases continues. In the last seven days, the island has seen an average of 105 new cases reported daily. Approximately 3.6% of tests conducted on the island were positive last week.

According to Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Health, the COVID-19 case reports are based on test results from laboratories statewide and include both residents and tourists.

Hawaii residents who test positive out of state also are included, as well as cases confirmed among military service members and their families, although military cases are not specifically identified.

There were 1,700 cases recorded during the past two weeks — a metric that the health department uses as a proxy to estimate how many people have active infections.

For more information, check this Hawaii Department of Health COVID-19 site or this state site, and the Hawaii Data Collaborative COVID-19 Tracking site. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency also provides this comprehensive dashboard.

Cases, Deaths And COVID-19 Testing In Hawaii

20,417
COVID-19 Cases
287
Deaths
776,936
Tests performed

Honolulu’s 7-Day Averages

Tier 2
Current Tier*
108
Daily Case Count
3.7%
Test Positivity
Source: The City and County of Honolulu
* The current case numbers and test positivity rate may not correlate with the metrics set for a specific tier as the county must spend at least four consecutive weeks in a tier and meet the metrics for the next tier before advancing, according to the reopening plan. More information of the City and County of Honolulu’s reopening strategy as well as details of the restrictions of Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 can be found at oneoahu.org

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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