The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard for Thursday, August 6, at 8:00 a.m.:

Worldwide cases: 18,895,712    Worldwide deaths: 708,941

U.S. cases: 4,842,313      U.S. deaths: 158,606

According to the Dashboard, the reported worldwide cases increased by 293,917 in the last 24 1/2 hours.  The worldwide death toll in the past two days increased by 6,896.

According to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard, the United States has added 52,930 cases in the last 24 1/2 hours, and reported deaths attributed to COVID-19 have increased by 1,340.

In Hawaii, yesterday’s daily case count was 173 new cases of COVID-19, all on O’ahu. That’s the state’s highest daily total, other than Monday’s count of 207, which included 114 cases that had not been put into previous daily totals because the lab couldn’t get the numbers to the state.  Because of the increase in cases and hospitalizations, Ray Vara, CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health and Lt. Gov. Josh Green, an emergency room physician, have begun expressing concern about the state’s hospital capacity and they, along with all other government and health officials, are asking people to double down on wearing masks and staying at least 6 feet away from other non-household members.

The State has 2,763 cumulative cases, with 1,334 active cases. The Big Island has 7 active cases as of Thursday morning.   Several entities on the Big Island have acknowledged active cases associated with their facilities:  South Kohala District Courthouse in Waimea, the Waikoloa Fire Station, Liberty Dialysis in Hilo, and last evening, Kona Community Hospital confirmed they had two “traveling” medical professionals who had come from the mainland and tested positive before starting work.

State Health Director Bruce Anderson says most cases on O’ahu are not travel-related, but community spread.  On the Big Island, Civil Defense Director Talmadge Magno says most cases are related to both interisland and out-of-state travel.

With rising case counts and the concern created by interisland travel, among other things, Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald has postponed jury trials until October 5, although non-jury trials and other court activities may continue.  His order came two days after the employee at the South Kohala District Courthouse tested positive.