The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard for Saturday, September 5, at 5:28 a.m.:

Worldwide cases:   26,674,386       Worldwide deaths: 875,739

U.S. cases:  6,210,699   U.S. deaths:  187,874

According to the Dashboard, the reported worldwide case report increased by 290,514 in the last 24 hours.  Deaths worldwide increased by more than 5,613.

According to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard, the United States has added 43,760 cases in the last 24 hours.  In that time,  the number of reported deaths from  COVID-19 increased by 890.

On Friday, the State Department of Health’s noon report:  271 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were added, bringing the cumulative state count to 9,473. The number of active cases on Friday was 6,537.

The deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the state: 81.   Although almost everybody who died is said to have had one or more underlying conditions, in general those people would not have passed away unless they contracted COVID-19, as the underlying conditions (obesity, diabetes, COPD, other lung disease as examples) would not likely have taken their lives, but they did make it hard for the body to fight off the infection.

Hawaii Island has reported 6 deaths, all residents from the Yukio Okutsu Veterans Home.   As of Friday, 41 residents of the Veterans Home with COVID-19 were being cared for at the residence, and 18 staff members had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Note that only 3 of the Veterans Home deaths are currently in the State’s formal count.  The State Department of Health explanation, via email:  “The hospital requires physicians to certify the death; sometimes that takes time to complete.  Once that is done, the facility notifies DOH of the death by telephone.   The process begins and DOH requests necessary documentation to verify the death as a legitimate COVID-19 death and then it coded and accepted as such in the DOH’s reporting database. Only then will the death be counted and announced to leadership to be included into the counts.”

Hawaii Island’s new cases on Friday: 34 The total number of cases on the island as of Friday was 469, with at least 255.  The total number of cases has quadrupled since August 1.

As of Friday afternoon, one patient with COVID-19 was in Kona Community Hospital, none were in North Hawaii Community Hospital, and there were 11 patients with COVID-19 at Hilo Medical Center, 3 of whom were in the ICU and the other 8 in the COVID-19 unit.

Click here for a more detailed report on hospitalizations and the situation at the Yukio Okutsu Veterans Home, which is run by Avalon Health and is part of the Hilo Medical Center complex.