State health department to end daily breakdown of Hawaii’s COVID-related deaths
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - On Sunday, the Hawaii Department of Health reported seven COVID-related fatalities, all on Oahu.
In a daily email to news outlets, health officials release additional information on the COVID-related deaths including what island they occurred on, an age range, and if the person was hospitalized or not. The emails also mention if the person had underlying conditions, but stopped short of saying exactly what those conditions were.
Sunday’s email with the breakdown of deaths was the final one from the DOH for the foreseeable future, according to DOH spokesperson Brooks Baehr.
“We will continue to provide daily updates on the number of COVID-19 related deaths in Hawaii. However, because of the volume of COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 related deaths we can no longer provide daily information including county of death, age range of the decedent, hospitalization status, gender, and whether or not the decedent had underlying conditions,” Baehr said.
“This information will continue to be updated every Wednesday on the DOH Disease Outbreak Control Division data dashboard,” Baehr added.
Hawaii News Now reached out to the department for additional information on their decision to end the daily breakdown. We are awaiting a response.
Meanwhile, despite sending out daily information regarding the deaths, vaccination status of the individuals was not included in the information. The DOH repeatedly said they do not provide that information publicly, and a person’s vaccination status was only uncovered through the investigation process.
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