LIHU‘E — The state Department of Health’s Kaua‘i District Health Office is monitoring a number of COVID-19 clusters, two weeks into a rise in local case counts.
Mayor Derek Kawakami announced the development Thursday afternoon, during the county’s weekly county update.
“Most of the clusters are occurring among coworkers in workplace settings, including retail shops and visitor industry businesses,” Kawakami said.
The mayor did not identify affected businesses, when speaking in the update posted to Facebook.
“After investigation, the Health Office determined that transmission occurred because people went to work while symptomatic and because they were in enclosed spaces with no masks,” Kawakami continued. “An additional risk factor includes allowing employees to gather in common indoor areas for extended periods of time.”
A few clusters have also been found in local school settings.
Kawakami credited the clusters’ relatively small sizes to mask requirements and distancing between desks.
Current numbers
Kaua‘i County is recording 27 new COVID-19 cases per day, according to the Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency’s latest seven-day average.
This represents a slight uptick over the prior week, when HIEMA recorded an average of 25 new cases per day in Kaua‘i County.
“Two weeks ago, there were only 10 cases a day,” Kawakami said. “The real case count is likely much higher due to the use of home tests, as well as asymptomatic infections.”
At press time, HIEMA’s online information dashboard reported one COVID-19-related hospitalization and one ventilation on Kaua‘i.
Test distribution
The county will continue its distribution of free at-home COVID-19 test kits oday, at the Koloa Neighborhood Center from 9 a.m. to noon, and then move to the Lihu’e Neighborhood Center from 1 to 4 p.m.
This was a week-long effort to hand out about 15,000 kits bought with federal funding.
Tests will be given out with a limit of five tests per individual/household, on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
