VIRUS TRACKER — Dec. 15: 57 New COVID-19 Cases

Hawaii health workers were the first to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday.

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Health officials reported 57 new COVID-19 cases statewide on Tuesday, including 35 on Oahu, 10 on the Big Island, eight on Maui, and four Hawaii residents who were diagnosed out of state.

No new fatalities were reported.

The state’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout began Tuesday at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. The first vaccines will be reserved for essential health care workers, long-term care facility residents and staff and first responders.

Another delivery of 3,900 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is expected Wednesday, followed by nearly 45,000 additional doses scheduled to arrive by the end of the month, according to Gov. David Ige.

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, which means there is a 36-hour lag between when results are submitted to the Department of Health and when the state reports them publicly.

An outbreak at an Oahu correctional facility is affecting Oahu’s weekly case and testing rates — two metrics that determine when the island will loosen some COVID-19 related restrictions, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Monday. At least 169 cases have been associated with Halawa Correctional Facility to date.

Caldwell said he is considering revising Oahu’s reopening strategy to exclude inmate cases. Cindy MacMillan, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Tuesday the governor has not yet received an order from the mayor to make the change.

Oahu remains in Tier 2 of its reopening plan. The island had an average of 83 new cases recorded daily during the past week, and 3% of tests conducted on the island were positive. The island must see a positivity rate of 2.49% or lower for two consecutive weeks to enter Tier 3, which would loosen some restrictions.

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 test results from 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.

If a visitor takes a test outside of Hawaii, those test results are reported to the home state and would not be reflected in the Hawaii’s reports. In some cases, rapid point-of-care testing results are not submitted to the health department and are not included in these daily reports either.

There were 1,435 cases recorded during the past two weeks — a metric that the health department uses as a proxy to estimate how many people currently have active infections.

The official state death toll is 274. Civil Beat calculates at least 280 people have died from the disease in Hawaii, including six deaths on Hawaii island that are still pending medical verification by the state. The Hawaii County Civil Defense has recorded 49 deaths on the Big Island.

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

19,480
COVID-19 Cases
280
Deaths
744,247
Tests performed

Honolulu’s 7-Day Averages

Tier 2
Current Tier*
83
Daily Case Count
3%
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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