LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i County has recorded its third COVID-19-related death in as many months.
The deceased was a hospitalized Kaua‘i woman in her 80s.
Mayor Derek Kawakami reported her passing during Thursday’s weekly county briefing, streamed on Facebook.
“We send our deepest condolences to her loved ones,” Kawakami said.
The mayor announced the death of a hospitalized, 90-year-old man in mid-May, and the death of a hospitalized, 70-year-old man in late April.
Kaua‘i County has recorded a cumulative 14,270 confirmed cases and 29 COVID-19 fatalities to date, according to the Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency.
The local seven-day-average case rate, which dipped last week, has since resumed its upward trajectory: Kaua‘i now averages 71 new cases per day.
State numbers are rising as well.
“It was Hawai‘i’s 10th week in a row of rising case counts. There were an average 1,210 cases a day statewide, up more than 100 cases a day from last week,” Kawakami said.
Kaua‘i’s test-positivity rate has also risen by less than one percentage point, to 25% this week. (The current statewide rate is 18.5%.)
Last week, the mayor announced the state Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office was investigating active clusters in health-care and long-term-care settings.
He repeated that claim Thursday, also noting an unspecified number of other clusters remain under investigation.
“Most of these are workplace clusters resulting from close contact between staff who are not wearing masks and not social distancing, or are going to work when ill,” Kawakami said.
The mayor asked people to not go to work while they have any symptoms, and to get tested before returning to work.
“Many of these workplace clusters happen when employees with mild symptoms think they don’t have COVID and show up to work,” he said.
HIEMA’s online data dashboard indicated five are currently hospitalized on Kaua‘i due to COVID-19. None occupy an intensive-care unit bed, or had been ventilated, as of Thursday.
The County of Kaua‘i still offers free testing at the Lihu‘e Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall weekdays, and from its mobile van Wednesdays through Sundays. The schedule is posted at kauai.gov/covidtest.
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Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
