LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i officials confirmed Wednesday that no new COVID-19 cases have been reported since March 29 on the island, though the number of cases statewide continues to climb.
As of noon on Wednesday, health officials said there have been a total of 258 positive cases reported statewide since Feb. 28, including 34 new cases reported from the islands of Maui Hawai‘i and from Honolulu, with a total of 69 individuals released from isolation.
On Kaua‘i, the total number of confirmed cases remains at 12. Seven individuals have either recovered, or returned to their home on the mainland, according to Mayor Kawakami, who included new numbers in his Wednesday video address to the people of Kaua‘i.
The remaining five active cases on Kaua‘i are residents. Four remain in home isolation and one of the cases is now in isolation at the hospital.
The 14-day quarantine for all incoming people to Hawai‘i— traveling from mainland, internationally or inter-island — kicked off yesterday.
“For residents, this means you must shelter in your home and cannot leave your property,” Kawakami reminded the public Wednesday. “For visitors, this means you must stay in your hotel room or private lanai. You cannot roam the hotel property or visit the gym, pool or other outside spaces. Any food or supplies that a person needs while in quarantine must be delivered.”
All who travel inter-island will be required to complete an Interisland Declaration Form. It will include: Name; residential address; contact number; and destination information. Travelers must also declare the purpose of their travel. To view a copy of the Declaration Form, please visit governor.hawaii.gov/newsroom
In Washington D.C., President Trump signed a Major Disaster Declaration for Sate of Hawaii on Wednesday, triggering the release of Federal funds to help communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The declaration is in effect from Jan. 20, 2020 and is continuing. The disaster declaration provides assistance to individuals and households and for emergency work and repair or replacement of disaster-damaged facilities. The measure provides direct federal assistance of 75% of the total cost.
Meanwhile, the Hawaii National Guard has been partially activated and is standing ready to provide community support during the COVID-19 crisis. Airmen from the Air National Guard’s, Medical Detachment 1 are carrying out daily temperature screenings and health surveys for guardsmen on active duty. Their job is to make sure that guardsmen remain healthy for the duration of their deployments. Currently the guard is doing planning and logistics in support of the state and is prepared to take on any tasks as assigned by the governor.
You’re in the case phase, get ready for a fight.
case, case, case, cluster, cluster, BOOM
Excuse me, Mr. Mayor…who did those “five remaining residents” come into contact with before they were tested, and where are those people right now?
That’s the thing…to a large extent, it is impossible to know, especially now. That’s why it was so crucial to have tests available to as many people as possible EARLY ON. Then you could actually do contact tracing and know what the situation is. Unfortunately, we could have a significant number of people on Kauai who are carrying the disease with no symptoms. Everyone is flying blind right now, and it needs to be made painfully clear to everyone that the fault for this DOES NOT sit with local municipalities (police forces, councils, or mayors), or even with governors. This is a FEDERAL issue and a FEDERAL failure, and the fault lies with the FEDERAL government. Not with China, not with “impeachment.” If we don’t address this problem, assuming we survive this mess, we’ll go through something like this or something much worse later.
The fact that we still have states which have not implemented social distancing restrictions is an example of how “state’s rights” can get us all in trouble. Viruses don’t care about any imaginary borders. Georgia’s governor just stated that he didn’t know the virus could be spread by asymptomatic people until about a day or two ago, even though this has been discussed for WEEKS. This kind of confusion is all the fault of the federal government not taking this seriously, and we can not allow this kind of thing again.
Always have to find someone to blame. Doesn’t improve the situation.
I doubt it. We’re just not testing as extensively as Oahu and Maui….
KPD should definitely be patrolling West side tho, Kekaha beach was quite the gathering spot yesterday afternoon… (I noticed as I drove straight home from my “essential” job).
We can’t test extensively if we don’t have the tests to test extensively (as well as the capacity to analyze those tests quickly).
Good job mayor and people of Kauai. Keep up the good work. Stop visitors for awhile. Lucky to live Kauai.
Don’t mess with Kauai!
That’s wonderful we’re keeping the numbers so controlled here now. But… what happens when travel someday resumes? Are we just going to lock everything down until there’s a vaccine and everyone here has received it?