Hawaii sees 4 new coronavirus-related deaths, 140 additional infections

Oct. 17—Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported four new-related deaths and 140 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state's totals since the start of the pandemic to 866 fatalities and 82, 250 cases.

No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 723, 000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 44.9 million.

Today's new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 72 new cases on Oahu, 14 on Maui, 38 on Hawaii island, 10 on Kauai, one on Molokai, and five Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.

State health officials have been including probable infections in its total case counts. Probable infections include people who never received a confirmatory test but are believed to have had the virus because of their known exposure and symptoms or because of a positive antigen test.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 56, 872 on Oahu, 9, 338 on Maui, 10, 645 in Hawaii County, 2, 465 on Kauai, 140 on Lanai and 237 on Molokai. There are also 2, 553 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state's total infection count, 2, 208 cases were considered to be active. Officials say they consider infections reported in the past 14 days to be a "proxy number for active cases." The state's total number of active cases decreased today by 129.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2, 099, 540 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of Friday, up 6, 422 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 70 % of the state's population is now fully vaccinated, and 78.2 % have received at least one dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 4, 575 have required hospitalizations, with six new hospitalizations reported today.

The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 75 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 1.9 %, state health officials said today.------This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.------

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