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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Cars line up to receive free groceries Wednesday from a partnership between the City & County of Honolulu, Bank of Hawaii Foundation, Hawai‘i Community Foundation and Hawaii Foodbank. The economic toll of the coronavirus has greatly increased the need for food assistance for many Hawaii families.
Hawaii’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 629, up three from Wednesday, the state Department of Health announced today. All three new cases are on Oahu.
A total 565 patients have been classified by health officials as released from isolation since the start of the outbreak, an increase of seven from Wednesday. Nearly 90% of the people who have been infected in Hawaii are now classified as released from isolation.
The “released from isolation” category has been widely used by state officials and the media to calculate Hawaii’s recovery rate. However, in a footnote today, Health Department officials acknowledged that the “released from isolation” category includes not only people who are no longer infected, but also Hawaii’s 17 coronavirus-related fatalities, and an unspecified number of patients who “have left the jurisdiction.”
A department spokeswoman said state health officials do not have an actual recovery rate number for COVID-19 cases.
Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases since the start of the outbreak, 74 have required hospitalizations, with no new hospitalizations reported today, health officials said.
The state’s coronavirus death toll stands at 17, unchanged from Wednesday. Eleven of the deaths have been on Oahu and six on Maui.
Today’s statewide total includes 408 cases on Oahu, 116 in Maui County, 74 on Hawaii island, and 21 in Kauai County, according to health officials.
The statewide total also includes 10 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside of the state.
By county, Honolulu has seen 384 patients released from isolation, Maui has had 93 released, the Big Island has seen 67, and Kauai seen all 21 of its virus patients released from isolation as of today, the Health Department says.
One hospitalization in the statewide count is a Hawaii resident who was diagnosed and treated outside the state, officials said. Of the 73 hospitalizations in the state, 54 have been on Oahu, 17 on Maui and one each on the Big Island and Kauai.
Of the 34,206 coronavirus tests conducted by state and clinical laboratories so far in Hawaii, just 1.8% have been positive. The number of total test was adjusted lower today because health officials said that they discovered that some tests in the past week had been double counted.
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