LIHU‘E — As of Monday, the county’s average daily case count has dropped to eight new COVID-19 cases per day, down from 40 six weeks ago, Kaua‘i Deputy District Health Officer Lauren Guest reported Monday.
The Kaua‘i District Health Office reported six new cases on Monday. All six are residents, including three children and three adults. One of the cases is related to mainland travel, while the remaining five cases are considered community-acquired. Three of the community-acquired infections are close contacts of a previously announced case or are tied to one of our active clusters. The remaining two cases have no known source of infection.
The county is currently monitoring seven active clusters, including two restaurants, one place of worship, and four occupational settings, Guest said.
With this downtrend in COVID-19 cases, the county will begin briefing residents once a week, rather than twice.
“Our daily case counts have declined significantly in recent weeks, but they remain elevated,” Mayor Derek Kawakami said Monday.
As of yesterday, the county has 48 active cases, with two hospitalized, for a total of 2,552 cumulative cases since the pandemic began.
Late last week, the state announced that 70% of Hawai‘i residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Nearly 102,000 eligible Hawai‘i residents have not started vaccination, and approximately 117,000 Hawai‘i residents have initiated but not completed vaccination. Around 207,492 children under the age of 11 are not yet eligible for vaccination.
Later this week, Wilcox Medical and Hawai‘i Health Systems mobile vaccine van will be at the Anahola Marketplace from noon to 3; the Anaina Hou Community Park in Kilauea on Friday from noon to 4:30 p.m.; and the Hanalei Neighborhood Center in Hanalei on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m.
Ho‘ola Lahui will be in Isenberg Park in Lihu‘e from 9 to 11 a.m. on Saturday.
All of these clinics offer free vaccines to ages 12 and up and no appointments are needed.
A free mobile testing van is available for walk-ins from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Kekaha Neighborhood Center on Wednesdays, Kilauea Neighborhood Center on Thursdays, Kalaheo Neighborhood Center on Fridays, Hanalei Neighborhood Center on Saturdays, and the Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex in Kapa‘a on Sundays.
Free drive-thru testing is also available daily at Lihu‘e Pharmacy Group, Kolopa Street near the Puhi Safeway, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Are they monitoring it yet? In the state newspaper, they mentioned that the restrictions on gathering outdoors is still on. November 13, 2021 is when they are taking it off. And indoors. But I see that they are also beginning the KIF and pop warner season outdoors activities. Also the vaccination requirements for restaurant workers are on. And face mask rule on outdoors and indoors activities where guest are involved are required. 50% occupancy for indoors gatherings for restaurants. Are they still enforcing this at the restaurants? Include the vaccination requirement to dine in. Restaurants every where. Or have they just done away with it because the economy is picking up and tourist are more important?
> declined significantly in recent weeks, but they remain elevated
Kawakami is a master of double speak. The cases are down but they’re up. Makes no sense.
More scared comments from the mayor talking about how our cases are still elevated when they’re almost down to nothing and how come we aren’t told how many of the people that tested positive were vaccinated? why are you keeping that a secret from us ? Is it because you don’t want us to know that some or most of them were vaccinated already because especially the ones that came back from Mainland travel I would imagine most of those people that went to the mainland were vaccinated so if they came back and they tested positive what does that tell us?. It tells us you’re not telling us what we need to know