LIHU‘E — Thursday, the state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office announced 25 new cases of COVID-19, two visitors and 23 residents.
Of the cases, eight are children and 17 are adults.
Three of the cases are related to travel — two mainland and one interisland. The remaining 22 cases are considered community-acquired. Eighteen of the community-acquired infections are close contacts of previously announced cases or tied to an active cluster. The remaining four community-acquired cases have no known source of infection.
According to DOH Kaua‘i Deputy District Health Officer Lauren Guest, there are currently 15 active clusters on Kaua‘i, including four restaurants, four other occupational settings, two places of worship, two educational settings, one construction setting, one social gathering, and one cluster related to tourism. The exact locations were not disclosed.
“The good news is that our daily case counts continue to show a modest decline following a spike over these last two months,” said Sol Kanoho, Kaua‘i Fire Department assistant chief.
Kanoho, who retired Thursday, served as the county’s unified commander on the Emergency Operation Center’s Incident Management Team.
Thursday’s cases bring the number of active cases to 155, with seven hospitalized, and 2,346 cumulative cases.
Kanoho noted that, in the last few weeks, the county’s average test positivity rate was over 5%, but has now gotten down to about 4%.
“At the beginning of this summer, it was nearly zero,” he said.
The county’s mobile-testing van is at the Kalaheo Neighborhood Center today, Hanalei Neighborhood Center on Saturday and the Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste Sports Complex in Kapa‘a on Sunday, all from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. No appointments are needed, and results are provided the same day.
