Inclusion Of Covid-19 Reinfections Boosts Hawaii’s Weekly Case Count
The state health department began reporting reinfections as separate cases, saying they used to be rare but have become more common.
Covid-19 reinfections now account for about 10% of the confirmed cases in Hawaii, health officials said Wednesday, as the state began including the backlogged repeat cases in its official count.
The Department of Health reported 10,995 reinfections dating back to September 2020, raising its weekly count to 12,755. But the seven-day positivity rate was 5.7%, reflecting an overall decline in the spread of the coronavirus.
The announcement came amid a push for Hawaii residents to get the bivalent booster shot, which targets the original coronavirus strain as well as the highly contagious omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. While people may get Covid-19 multiple times, experts say vaccinations provide increased protection against severe illness.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important to know that reinfection is happening,鈥 State Epidemiologist Sarah Kemble said at a news conference. 鈥淚t certainly informs choices about getting vaccinated.聽We’re looking at both these counts now, and the science that’s coming out that says even when you’ve previously been infected, getting a vaccine or booster is also going to provide additional protection to you, even for those that already had the infection.鈥
More than 77% of the state鈥檚 population is fully vaccinated, 45.3% received the first booster shot and 13% received a second.
Reinfections used to be extremely rare but have become more common as the virus evolves, Kemble said.
“Recently, as we’ve seen shifts in variants, and now with BA.5, we’re up to about 10% of our cases recently reported being reinfections,” Kemble said. “So we’re seeing a much more prominent trend with reinfections now.”
The state dashboard used to only count people once regardless of how many times they got Covid-19. Now each case will be recorded separately, Kemble said, cautioning that will lead to higher numbers. She noted the official figures don’t include home tests that often aren’t reported to the health department.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to be able to capture those reinfections, so I would say, in actuality, the true number of reinfections is probably higher than what we are able to show in these numbers,” she said.
Of the 1,145 new cases reported Wednesday, 117 were reinfections, according to聽DOH spokesman Brooks Baehr.
Hawaii has reported a total of 355,959 cases since the pandemic began in the islands in March 2020. The state also reported seven new deaths over the past week, raising the total to 1,686.
Kemble said it’s unclear if people who get Covid more than once become sicker than those who are only infected once.
鈥淚n general, reinfection tends to be more mild for most combinations, but that鈥檚 not always the case,鈥 Kemble said. 鈥淯nfortunately, some people who are reinfected still do end up in the hospital or can die. I think this is really important to know — that vaccines are a way to protect yourself from those more severe outcomes.鈥
No data is available on how many people reinfected with Covid-19 were vaccinated or unvaccinated, according to Kemble. She also said聽there鈥檚 no complete understanding of whether some people are more vulnerable to reinfection.
Civil Beat鈥檚 health coverage is supported by the, Swayne Family Fund of Hawaii Community Foundation, Cooke Foundation and .
