LIHU‘E — As of Saturday, the state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office has reached its contact-tracing capacity, despite bringing in new staff, health officials reported.
“This means that you may not hear from us in the same timeframe our community has become accustomed to,” said Lauren Guest, DOH KDHO public health preparedness planner.
“If you test positive, please isolate yourself at home immediately and notify your close contacts,” she said.
Kaua‘i District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman said island-wide or statewide restrictions need to be implemented to bring this current uptick in COVID-19 infections to a halt.
“Until such measures are in place, each of us can do our part. If you test positive, isolate at home immediately, and let your contacts know they have been exposed,” Berreman said.
Late last week, Mayor Derek Kawakami, along with health officials like Berreman and community leaders, called on residents to “help us avoid a shutdown” by restricting unnecessary travel, avoiding gatherings, following social-distancing procedures and getting vaccinated.
“No, we are not implementing any new restrictions today. But I am asking all of you to join our call to action,” Kawakami said Thursday.
The DOH KDHO reported 39 new cases on Sunday.
Sunday’s cases are three visitors and 36 residents. Of the 39 new cases, nine are children and 30 are adults. Two of the cases are related to mainland travel. The remaining 37 cases are considered community-acquired. Twenty-three of the community-acquired infections are close contacts of previously announced cases or are tied to one of our active clusters. The remaining 14 community-acquired cases have no known source of infection, including four cases whom investigators have been unable to reach after repeated attempts or who have refused to provide information.
All active cases are in isolation, and close contacts are being identified, offered testing, and directed to quarantine. Investigations are ongoing.
Sunday’s cases bring the number of active cases to 293, with five hospitalized, and 1,361 cumulative cases.
For details on the vaccination sites, visit kauai.gov/vaccine.
For more details in testing sites, see kauai.gov/covidtest.
For more information on the county’s COVID-19 response, visit kauai.gov/COVID-19.
Please listen to him so we can avoid shut down
Really? What about the 4 cases that refuse to respond or provide information to contact tracers? Are they in isolation and letting their contacts know about exposure to infection?
Also, can we get information on how many of those who test positive are vaccinated? Are the mainland travel related positive cases getting on the planes vaccinated but arriving here and developing symptoms while on vacation? What about those on the plane with them? Maybe we should go back to testing before boarding the plane.
Can you please share how man active cases listed by cities. Specifically Koloa
Thank you
My post should have said “many” not man.
Can anyone else see the trend of once everyone got vaccinated we have record numbers of death and cases. Are the vaccinated spreading the virus asymptomatically?
Why aren’t they releasing the number of how many vaccinated people are dying?
It seems this plan of vaccinate everyone is backfiring.
Ya man blame the vaccinated people. Amazing.
A positive test equals quarantine w/o a paycheck. Mandatory sick-leave pay for all positive-tested working residents forced to quarantine would be a good start to getting those 4 to be contactable.
Is there any way the Mayor can find a budget for that? Maybe put road work on hold until this crisis passes…?
So people’s health should directly influence their livelihood? If that’s the case, please tell us your cholesterol, blood pressure and BMI so you can have your wages docked accordingly.
The real question is how many visitors are showing up… Feeling sick and not testing before they go home… Average time to show symptoms is 5 days… Average timeshare on Kauai is 7 days… Only the honest ones who can afford to stay will get a test. The ones who decided to come here now most likely aren’t in that category…