HONOLULU — State Department of Health officials reported two coronavirus-related deaths and 114 new infections statewide Sunday, bringing the state’s totals since the beginning of the pandemic to 99 fatalities and 10,700 COVID-19 cases.
The total new cases Sunday included 96 on O‘ahu, 16 on Hawai‘i Island and two in Maui County. As a result of updated information, one O‘ahu case and one Big Island case were removed from the tally.
Sunday’s total coronavirus cases by county since the start of the outbreak are 9,654 on O‘ahu, 587 in Hawai‘i County, 375 in Maui County, and 58 in Kaua‘i County. There are also 26 Hawai‘i residents diagnosed outside of the state.
Kauai has no active cases today, according to the DOH.
VA to help quell outbreak in Hilo veterans home
The federal Department of Veterans Affairs has sent a team of health-care staffers to help contain a coronavirus outbreak at a veterans home in Hilo on Hawai‘i Island.
Ten residents have died at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home, officials said Friday, and the majority of its 74 residents have tested positive for the coronavirus after an asymptomatic employee is thought to have brought it on-site, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz declared the outbreak a public-health emergency and implored the VA last week to aid the home’s management of the situation.
Schatz said the veteran’s home was understaffed and not equipped to halt the outbreak on its own. The federal team will recommend processes and procedures to manage the outbreak, as well as conduct investigations into infection-control issues that occurred in the home.
The team includes an infectious-disease physician, a facilities engineer, an infectious-disease nurse, a safety officer, an industrial hygienist and a nurse manager, the newspaper reported.
Statewide, the number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.
