LIHU‘E — Indoor and outdoor gathering sizes are changing once again.
Effective Wednesday, social gatherings and events on Kaua‘i will be limited to 40 indoors and 100 outdoors. Events with over these capacity limits must have an event coordinator verifying full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result within 24 hours of the event from all attendees.
Last week, Gov. David Ige announced that state-wide orders on gathering restrictions, as well as restaurant capacity, would be lifted, leaving the counties to determine their own rules.
“Here on Kaua‘i, we will continue restrictions on gatherings and events,” Mayor Derek Kawamai said Monday.
Currently, the county requires professionally organized events over 50 to inform the county on their event details at least 10 days prior to the event. Starting Wednesday, event coordinators will not need to register events on the Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency website anymore, either.
The state’s Safe Travels program, which requires out-of-state travelers to quarantine unless they show proof of full vaccination or negative COVID-19 test, will remain in effect. Indoor mask mandates will, too, statewide.
“While we are moving forward with updated emergency measures, we must remain vigilant,” Ige said in a statement Monday.
Last week, the omicron variant of the coronavirus was detected, which the World Health Organization warned of a global risk as “very high” based on the early evidence.
The variant has not been detected in the mainland or in Hawai‘i.
“The omicron variant will likely be detected in the United States,” Ige said. “Hawai‘i has a robust surveillance system. Our State Laboratories Division has the capacity to conduct whole genomic sequencing to detect variants. We have not seen the omicron variant here in Hawai‘i as of this morning, but we are closely monitoring the situation and will identify the variant as early as possible should it show up here.”
Kaua‘i Deputy District Health Officer Lauren Guest suggested protective measures, like masking indoors and avoiding large gatherings to continue to protect against all variants, including the delta variant continues to circulate on Kaua‘i.
“Scientists and health officials are still learning more about this (omicron) variant — especially the effectiveness of current vaccines against it,” Guest said Monday. “We don’t know yet how strong the protection offered by current vaccines will be. We don’t know yet whether this variant will be more transmissible or whether it will cause more severe disease.”
On Monday, the Kaua‘i District Health Office recorded 15 new cases of COVID-19. All are residents, and the 15 include four children and 11 adults. Three of the cases are related to mainland travel, with the rest considered community-acquired.
“We do expect to see a rise in cases over the next few weeks due to gatherings and travel around the holiday,” Guest said.
The county is currently reviewing six active clusters, including two educational settings, one food supplier, one restaurant, one construction setting and one social gathering.
Ten of the 98 active cases are hospitalized.
