LIHU‘E — Yesterday, the Kaua‘i District Health Office reported one new positive case of COVID-19.
The new case is a household contact of the case reported on Sunday. Both cases are related to inter-island travel and are in isolation. Contacts of the two cases have been notified, quarantined and offered a test. The cumulative total of cases to date is 49.
“We are discouraging all non-essential travel off of Kaua‘i, as you know,” Dr. Janet Barreman, Kauai District Health Officer said yesterday. “O‘ahu currently poses the biggest threat to Hawaii residents traveling inter-island. And travel to other neighbor islands often involves transiting through O‘ahu, and interacting with residents and visitors from O‘ahu. Therefore, any interisland travel poses an increased risk of exposure. Please travel only for essential purposes. This is not the time for recreational travel.”
On Monday, the state reported 140 new cases and three additional COVID-19 related fatalities. This is the 12th consecutive day of tripe digital newly diagnosed cases.
On Saturday, the state recorded 231 new coronavirus cases, as state and municipal officials closed beaches and parks on O‘ahu and restricted other activities like trails.
The statewide total of cases since the start of the pandemic in March has risen to 3,638. Most of the cases have been in Honolulu and its suburbs.
Hawai‘i Department of Health Director Bruce Anderson said officials expect the death toll to rise.
“Hospitals throughout Oahu are transferring patients and opening up new specialized COVID units to handle the surge in patients that is expected over the next couple of weeks,” Anderson said Saturday.
Closing O‘ahu’s beaches, parks and other high-risk activities will help prevent the spread of the virus, but the measures are not enough and residents need to take responsibility in efforts to curb the virus, Anderson said.
Gov. David Ige plans to reinstate a requirement that people traveling between the islands quarantine themselves for 14 days, starting today.
Travelers arriving on O‘ahu from the state’s other islands will not need to quarantine, but people arriving in the other counties from different islands will.
Travelers to Kaua‘i will be required to quarantine for 14 days, whether from the mainland or other island.
“The point of the quarantine is to protect our community, so modified quarantine requests are granted on an extremely limited basis,” Mayor Derek Kawakami said yesterday.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green said the number of cases should begin falling as closures and quarantine take effect.
“We’ll likely see cases in the triple digits for another week, then the numbers should begin to drop,” he said. “If we do very well socially distancing, the numbers on O‘ahu could be back to the 20-30 a day or better by 9/1.”
Every night. EVERY night, I’m seeing huge gatherings of people in the Eleele Nani subdivision. No masks, close contact indoors and out, and kids in each other’s faces everywhere. Calling the police does no good. They show up, bump elbows with the host, and drive away. When the virus takes hold on Kauai, it will probably wipe out half of Kauai’s population. County employees are not masking up. Don’t believe me? Visit the Hanapepe transferstation any hour of the day, even thought they have a big sign out front requiring masks. You’re asking for it, Kauai, and you’re going to get it. Pretending you won’t isn’t going to stop it.
Come on now….”wipe out Half of the population”?! Of Kauai. That’s actually scientifically impossible. Even if every single person on Kauai got the virus Based on the current numbers we would still have a 97-99% survival rate. However, I’m not a scientist or mathematician. But your rant just doesn’t add up pal.
Keep your eye on Oahu for the next 4 weeks. You’ll get your pandemic math lesson, Kawika.
I read yesterday Covid has a 99.74% survival rate. Most people have minimal or no symptoms.
Dear Karen…errr, Kimo,
Avoid Eleele.
Keep your distance at the transfer station. And anywhere else.
Problem solved.
You seriously called the po-po? I suppose it was out of concern for the kids, right? I suppose they don’t know about the virus.
Like New Zealand, it seems we need to commit to conservative, decisive action to contain. We need to recognize our very low levels of voluntary social distancing compliance (now especially on the outer islands) – and our capacity to provide medical care. The data is available and clear, so we can’t risk any wishful thinking. Our Oahu contact tracing has been overrun, and ICUs will soon be full – which means there will be fewer safety nets, especially for outer islands with limited hospital beds. It seems unrealistic to think there will be air transfers to already full Oahu hospitals. There is no shame in making mistakes, only in failing to correct them.
UNACAST has a free Social Distancing Scoreboard (under Covid-19 Toolkit on their main page) that uses a region’s cell phone data to give decision makers a real time assessment of how well a community is complying with social distancing. Neither Oahu nor the outer islands are making the grade – https://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard?view=state&fips=15#scoreboard
Where is our increased infrastructure to care for the sick?
They think we can hide.
I thought our original 2 week shut down was to flatten the curve and let the healthcare systems have time to prepare. I bet many more people on the Island have had corona virus and do not even realize they had the virus.