LIHU‘E — Wednesday, the state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office reported 23 new cases of COVID-19, mostly linked to a workplace outbreak at a food supplier.
A cluster investigation is ongoing, Kaua‘i District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman said in a release. The food supplier was not named.
This brings the county’s active, recorded cases to 51, with three hospitalized.
The DOH also announced that it would move its statewide COVID data reporting to a weekly schedule, rather than its daily reporting.
From now on, case counts and vaccination updates will be published on the DOH’s COVID-19 dashboard every Wednesday, beginning on March 16.
“Our decisions have always been based on trends, not single-day counts,” state DOH Director Dr. Elizabeth Char said. “There is greater focus now on weekly hospital admissions, weekly hospital occupancy and weekly case counts when calculating the current community levels of COVID-19. Our processes are evolving as the pandemic evolves.”
State DOH State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble said that since more people are taking at-home COVID-19 tests that are not reported in state data, “that means our case counts are not as accurate a reflection of COVID-19 in the community as they once were.”
“We are still monitoring case counts, but hospital metrics now play a larger role in our decisions,” Kemble said.
According to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, only nine states report daily COVID-19 case counts.
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Sabrina Bodon, editor, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
