First at 4 p.m. (August 31, 2021)

With no sign of Hawaii’s COVID surge leveling out, hospitals are tackling a worrisome new problem: All the extra patients are straining the state’s oxygen supply. Over the past month, as COVID hospitalizations have grown along with infection counts, daily consumption for medical grade oxygen has jumped 250%, officials say. Hospital leaders held an emergency meeting Monday to discuss ways to conserve the finite resource.