LIHU‘E — Thursday, the state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office recorded the county’s highest single-day, new infection count of 63 COVID-19 cases.
All of these are in residents, the majority of which, 43, being adults.
Sixty of the cases are considered community-acquired, with many associated with active clusters at places of worship. The other three are related to travel.
The county currently has several active clusters, including four places of worship, two social gatherings, Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center and “several small occupational clusters,” Lauren Guest, a public health preparedness planner at the Kaua‘i District Health Office, reported.
“The delta variant is spreading aggressively,” county Managing Director Michael Dahilig said Thursday. “Healthy adults and children are getting very sick. More than a quarter of our COVID cases recently have been children.”
According to the state’s Sequencing and Variants of SARS-Cov-2 report released Sept. 1, the delta variant is dominant in Hawai‘i. Of samples taken of positive COVID-19 patients on Kaua‘i during this round of sequencing, 100% were of the delta variant.
“These reports reinforce what we know about the alarming increase in cases across Hawai‘i. Delta is different — it is twice as transmissible as other variants,” DOH Director Dr. Elizabeth Char said. “COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death, including from the delta variant. It’s critical that Hawai‘i residents take precautions to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19 and preserve health care capacity.”
There are 325 active confirmed cases on Kaua‘i, with five in the hospital.
According to the Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency, as of midday Thursday none of the county’s 11 intensive-care-unit beds were being used by COVID-19 patients.
With the upcoming Labor Day weekend, officials are urging residents and visitors to not gather.
“This holiday weekend, our choices and actions will determine how much suffering this island will have to endure in the month to come,” Mayor Derek Kawakami said in a statement. “Our case count is at a record high. So, please, adjust your plans.”
So Kawakami advised avoiding gathering indoors this weekend.
“If you are going to be around others, do it outside. Avoid closed spaces with poor ventilation,” Kawakami said. “Avoid crowded places. Avoid close-range conversations. Wear masks if you spend time with people from outside of your household. If you travel, get tested a few days after you return. These simple steps are our best hope to prevent more sickness and death.”
Gov. David Ige, in a statement, said hospitals throughout the state has been inundated with COVID-19 patients.
“Because of COVID, our hospital system across the state is in danger of moving toward a worst-case scenario. If that happens, health-care leaders warn that choices will have to be made, people may not receive the care they need, and some will die,” Ige said.
Guest said about 700 people per day have been seeking testing at sites including the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihu‘e and the county’s mobile-testing sites.
The testing van will be at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center today, the Hanalei Neighborhood Center on Saturday and in Kapa‘a at the Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex on Sunday. Each site is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for walk-up appointments.
This headline to this article was updated at 6:30 a.m., Friday, Sept. 3 for accuracy.
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Sabrina Bodon, editor, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
No matter how the tyrants lockdown, force useless masks, leaky vaccines and unscientific edicts on the people…it will come. Nature always wins. Good luck brainwashed sheeple.
What? you think others are brainwashed for trying to not get sick?
Those listed above who are infected probably shouldn’t have been in large gatherings, probably maskless and indoors.
Mr. Mayor, the covid variant isn’t a bag of potato chips. It could end up killing kids on this island. What are you waiting for? Who’s paying you off to pretend this isn’t happening? LOCK THIS ISLAND DOWN!
Lockdowns only delay the inevitable. This will run its course, you can’t escape reality. They ignorantly tried lockdowns already…it caused more harm than you understand…and gave you a taste of living under a dictatorship.
You can lock yourself down if you have fear, you’ll eventually get exposed…even if you’re vaccinated.
Good luck!
What happened to ‘stop the spread’ and ‘herd immunity’?
Myself and others repeatedly suggested that we have to learn to live with the virus. Because, it won’t go away, it will persist.
We requested facilities, more ICU beds, more medical resources. But nobody would listen. In fact, we were shouted down!
Blaming tourists. Blaming businesses that stay open. Blaming unvaccinated. Pointing fingers.
Suggesting masks will save us.
So ridiculous!
Where are the provisions to help us live with this virus? Where are the treatments? Where did the money go?
You can’t hide from the virus. Pretending masks stop the virus from floating or from spreading by touch won’t end the spread.
It is time to get real.
Protect the vulnerable by sheltering them, if they desire. Give us treatments. Add facilities and services with the money we were given by the federal government.
Stop the charades and virtue signaling and blaming.
How convenient, they are already blaming Labor Day for any increases. Forget about the loads of tourists coming from highly infected states that are here untested.
las Vegas travel + local residents = Kauai’s Covid problem.
Ya…it’s all Las Vegas travel….
And those clusters remain a secret.
It’s time to start talking about early treatment for COVID. As well as basic, common sense prevention beyond just the vaccine.
To someone with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
But I do not believe for one second that every one of these 63 people who tested positive for COVID was unvaccinated.
“four places of worship”
It’s ridiculous that these churches aren’t holding services online right now! There’s been far too many church clusters. What is it going to take for them to realize this isn’t a good idea? C’mon people get it together. You’re suppose to care for one another, so start caring!
Right after uopen your big fat checkbook to support All the residents……
It’s the vaccinated that are spreading it because they think they are immune. In fact they’re probably spreading it worse than the unvaccinated because they’re careless.
Since “Sixty of the cases are considered community-acquired, with many associated with active clusters at places of worship” why aren’t those specific churches identified so people can avoid them?
Why are the numbers reported locally by our Department of Health in the Garden Island, including COVID deaths, not appearing to match those reported statewide?
If you do the math, 325 active cases among 70,000 plus population of Kaua’i, you find that less than half a percent of the population is “infected”. How many active flu cases?? The news will never say an active cluster came from Costco or Walmart, but they will tell you to not go to church. Eat healthy, exercise, and read a bible. God bless us all
Children are getting very sick, then why are the operating??? Community spread cases could very well be from the vaccinated tourist that are everywhere!!!!
I meant children are getting very sick why are the schools operating???