O?ahu will be adjusting its tiered reopening plan by removing new cases from the Halawa Correctional Facility cluster. Under the changes, Honolulu will be subtracting new cases among the prison population from its weekly averages, but will still count positives among prison guards and staff.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced the city will be making the changes to its weekly case averages to avoid the island from going back to the most restrictive tier in the plan.
The state Department of Health on Monday reported 104 new cases of COVID-19 on Oahu. 55 are connected to the Halawa prison cluster.
Caldwell says the infections at the prison are inflating the island's numbers, and that residents and businesses shouldn't be punished. But he added the city will continue to monitor the cluster, despite subtracting infected prisoners from the average.
"We're going to put health and safety first, but we do not want to have a snap back to Tier One," Caldwell said.
"And I think by subtracting inmate positivity from the case count, our average seven days before would be 82.6 cases, which is below the Tier One threshold."
Caldwell proposed the changes to Governor David Ige and other county mayors during their regular meeting. Ige during a Monday afternoon press conference says he has agreed to Caldwell's plan.
-- HPR's Casey Harlow
Where we stand
The state Department of Health reported 66 new cases on Tuesday.
According to the state's numbers, O?ahu had 51 new cases, Maui 7, Hawai?i County 6, Kaua?i, Lanai and Moloka?i had none.
The latest state counts bring the O?ahu total to 17,209, Hawai?i County 1,822, Maui 792, Kaua?i 138, Lanai 106 and Moloka?i 22. The number of out-of-state cases total 328.
Since the pandemic began, the state has tallied 20,417 cases. The death toll stands at 282.
