David Y. Ige

(Honolulu) –Twelve deaths among residents of the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo have been confirmed and added to the state’s reported COVID-19 related deaths today. These deaths include 11 men and one (1) woman, all in the 70 to 80-year-old age group and with underlying health conditions. Ten of the residents passed away at the home and two others were hospitalized. Reporting on these deaths was delayed due to pending medical reports required for verification and classification of deaths as COVID-19.

In total, there are now 15 deaths confirmed by the State among residents of the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans home. Three separate assessments into the infections and deaths at the facility were initiated and are completed or near completion. One was conducted by a team from the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA), a second by the Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA), and a third, an unannounced inspection of infection control measures was conducted by the DOH Office of Health Care Assurance (OHCA).

The findings and recommendations in the two assessments conducted by the VA and the Incident Command Medical Support Team (HI-EMA, ESF-8) have been transmitted to the Yukio Okutsu Veterans Home and are being prepared for release. It is expected these reports will be ready soon. The DOH/OHCA unannounced inspection report is being completed today and will be transmitted to the facility before being shared with the public.

An additional death from COVID-19, unrelated to the home, is also being reported today. A 70 to 79-year-old O‘ahu man, with underlying health conditions, who had  been hospitalized at the time of his death. This brings the cumulative total of COVID-19 related deaths to 120.

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Dan Dennison
Lead Public Information Officer
[email protected]
(808) 636-8194

Hawai‘i COVID-19 Counts as of 12:00 noon, Sept.18, 2020

Island of Diagnosis	New Cases	Reported since 2/28/2020 (including new cases)
O‘ahu	106	10,119
Hawai‘i	9	632
Maui	0	366
Kaua‘i	-1	57
Moloka‘i	0	15
Lānaʻi	0	0
HI residents diagnosed outside of HI	0	28
Total Cases	114	11,217++
Deaths	13	120

Hospitalization numbers as of 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2020: Hawai‘i-22, Maui-2, O‘ahu-176, Kaua‘i-0 

++As a result of updated information, two (2) cases from O‘ahu were removed from the count and one (1) case from Kaua‘i was recategorized to O‘ahu  

Laboratory* Testing Data
There were 4,559 additional COVID-19 tests reported via electronic laboratory reporting. 

Total Number of Individuals Tested by Clinical and State Laboratories	Positive	Negative
273,888**	11,217	262,647
Total Number of Surge Tests++
51,375	319	51,056

*Electronic Laboratory Reporting **24 test results were inconclusive

++ Tests results from unique individuals. Total numbers may be higher due to repeat tests on single individuals.   

Hawaiicovid19.com