LIHU‘E — The state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office reported four new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, in three adult residents and one adult visitor.
Two of the cases are confirmed to be travel-related, while the other two are under investigation and have not yet been classified as travel-related or community-acquired. None of Thursday’s cases are currently hospitalized.
One of the travelers received a positive pre-travel test result after arriving on Kaua‘i. The other three cases were diagnosed on Kaua‘i. The cases are in isolation and close contacts are being identified, directed to quarantine and offered testing. Investigations are ongoing.
Kaua‘i now has 16 active on-island cases, with one person hospitalized, 13 isolating at home, and two in isolation facilities. Kaua‘i’s cumulative total is 99, including 88 confirmed on-island, one probable, and 10 tested out-of-state or off-island but reported after their arrival on Kaua‘i.
The County of Kaua‘i is currently in Tier 4, the lowest tier on Kauai’s Business and Recreational Guidelines for COVID-19 Tier Tracker. If cases remain above a weekly average of two per day for two weeks, or test positivity remains above a weekly average of 1% for two weeks, the island will go to a more-restrictive Tier 3.
With Thursday’s cases, the seven-day average of daily cases on Kauai is 2.1, and the test positivity rate is 1.5%, which is above the Tier 4 threshold. Should this average continue, the island will move tiers by the first week of December. Updates on tier movement will be provided as information becomes available.
For more information on the state’s COVID-19 cases or the state’s Safe Travels program, visit hawaiicovid19.com.
For more information on the county’s voluntary post-travel testing program, visit kauai.gov/COVID-19.
For more information on the county’s surge-testing program, visit kauai.gov/test.
Mayor Kawakami needs to prove to us – the residents of Kauai who pay his salary – that he is not the puppet of Big Tourism that many are accusing him of being and stand UP to Ige once and for all so that we can finally kick these infected tourist-zombies OUT of here before we all catch their disease and die!
Stop with this puppet talk. It’s boring. There are thousands of our fellow taxpayers who have been out of work due to these shutdowns. Lives are being ruined. But you don’t care. You want to follow your dogma. You don’t need to work. There have been 7 times more deaths due to influenza and pneumonia but you cower to the COVID. You hide in your hole. The rest of us want to work. There is no circular economy. There is no sustainable farming. Just stop with your accusations. Offer solutions.
Thinking like you is the exact reason why the virus is exploding across the nation. Get your facts straight – The mortality rate for this virus is 6 times the rate of the flu. 42,000 deaths vs 255,000 and that figure is growing faster than your ignorance.
I’m for opening, but this is appalling.
We are allowing, if not, inviting, “community spread” into our community – day by day the neighbor islands are giving ambitious state leadership the story they want – that travelers are not the problem, resident behavior is.
These are strong words, but what is happening is not unlike the sad history of travelers bringing infectious diseases to these islands, and then blaming the locals for spreading it.
Except it is in several ways.
1) We know more about infectious diseases.
2) One of our state leaders is a doctor.
3) We have proven measures (like quarantine and testing) to prevent the introduction of disease.
and most distressingly,
4) the state leaders are knowingly ignoring that every infected traveler is patient zero and they are ignoring that 1/3 of the states population (440,000 people) living on the neighbor islands are in a very different situation than Oahu (with 89% of the cases). It goes against the state line that “community spread” is already entrenched and avoidable throughout Hawaii – and thus focusing on, and worrying about, travelers is a mistake.
Reverting to a quarantine, at least on the neighbor islands, and certainly on Kaua’i, is not disastrous. It is bold, compassionate, necessary leadership that needs to happen fast. From there we can readjust to a sensible opening.
Otherwise those citizens are sitting ducks, and we all know it.
Mayor Kawakami, those not thinking of your citizens are taking advantage of you desire to find common ground. Their interests are clear. Lead us and let us know how to best support you.