The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard for Friday, July 31, at 4:35 a.m. (at 8:45 a.m. this is the latest update shown):

Worldwide cases: 17,334,539    Worldwide deaths: 674,038

U.S. cases:  4,496,737   U.S. deaths: 152,074

According to the Dashboard, the reported worldwide cases increased by 225,204 in the last 21 hours, and 5,449 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported.

According to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard, the United States has added 35,152 cases in the last 21 hours, and reported deaths attributed to COVID-19 have increased by 805.  Worldometer says 2.29 million people have recovered.

Hawaii still has the lowest death toll from COVID-19 in the country, but the cases of COVID-19 have spiked in the past month.   To date, the state has 1,989 cumulative cases with 1,226 released from monitoring.   On Thursday there were 124 new cases, and on Wednesday, 109, the highest daily counts the state has had.  As of noon on Thursday, Hawaii Island had 115 cumulative with one active, but this morning, Hawaii County Civil Defense announced there are no active cases and nobody in the hospital with COVID-19.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green, a frontline emergency room doctor, said on Thursday the state does not have enough contact tracers to follow the path of the disease, despite statements from the State Department of Health Director Bruce Anderson on Wednesday that the state had enough.  But Thursday afternoon, Gov. David Ige confirmed what Green had said, that the state does not have enough contact tracers and he’s thinking of using National Guard troops to assist.  This is despite the State DOH’s insistence in press conferences that there have been 400 people trained and ready to go, to supplement the 77 already on staff.

The State DOH web site says that as of Monday, July 27, 196 people have been trained.  It also says it could “surge” contact tracers now to 109.  Nevertheless, with what appears to be more than 600 active cases, the question remains whether the state can adequately find all those people who may have been infected by those confirmed to have COVID-19.