LIHU‘E — The Hawai‘i State Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office announced 18 new COVID-19 cases on Monday.
“Case counts now appear to be on a modest decline, but they are still higher than we would expect to see, and higher than the other islands are experiencing,” Mayor Derek Kawakami said Monday. “The majority of our cases are close contacts of previously announced cases, or they are linked to one of our active clusters.”
As of yesterday, there are currently active clusters at four restaurants, two places of worship, two educational settings, two other occupational settings, one construction industrial setting, one social gathering, and one cluster related to travel, lodging, and tourism.
“Our test positivity rate is just under 5%,” Kawakami said. “That means nearly one out of every 20 people getting tested on Kauai are now testing positive. That’s the highest rate we’ve had.”
Monday’s cases consist of one visitor and 17 residents.
Of the 18 new cases, five are children and 13 are adults. One of the cases is related to mainland travel. The remaining 17 cases are considered community-acquired. Eight of the community-acquired infections are close contacts of previously announced cases or are tied to one of our active clusters. The remaining nine community-acquired cases have no known source of infection, including one that investigators are unable to reach or who has refused to provide information.
Active cases are directed to isolate, and close contacts are being identified, offered testing, and directed to quarantine.
Monday’s cases bring the number of active cases to 183, with eight hospitalized, and 2,285 cumulative cases.
