LIHU‘E — County of Kaua‘i announced a full transition to conducting board and commission meetings remotely on Wednesday and will continue to accept written testimony from the public, as is part of the public process.
That announcement is in line with Governor David Ige’s March 16 Emergency Proclamation which, in part, suspended Hawai‘i Revised Statute 92 — Hawai‘i’s public meetings law.
Mayor Derek Kawakami announced Kaua‘i now has four active cases of COVID-19 on the island — three are in home isolation, one remains in isolation at the hospital and all but one case have been confirmed to be travel-related.
To date, there have been a total of 21 cases of COVID-19 on Kaua‘i; 17 of those individuals have either recovered or returned home to the Mainland.
Statewide, a total of 13 new cases of COVID-19 were reported by the Hawai‘I Department of Health on Wednesday. DOH staff says there is an even split between infection risk factors, with travel-association noted in six cases, and community-spread also at six.
Risk factor for one person is unknown at this time.
As of Wednesday, a total of 20,535 individuals have been tested by clinical and state laboratories statewide with 528 individuals testing positive for the virus and 19,972 individuals have tested negative for the virus; 35 test results were inconclusive, according to DOH.
Hawai‘i National Guard announced it is increasing its personnel to 1,200 Guardsmen to help with COVID-19 response on Wednesday. Last week, 400 Soldiers and Airmen were activated; meaning a total of 800 more Guardsmen will be brought on status to assist.
At the Lihu‘e Airport, there were zero arrivals from out of state on Wednesday. Inter-island travel brought 15 arrivals from Honolulu on Wednesday.
Kawakami warned of hundreds of deaths on Kauai from this virus. There have been none. Zero. Nada. Zilch. And so what does he do? He says we all have to now wear masks in public. The death rate in Hawaii as a whole is well below 2%. And yet we’re destroying our economy and asking teachers to take a 20% pay cut. Politicians will kill us before Covid does.
No one dying is what success looks like.
Derek Kawakami has done a superlative job in looking ahead to the implications of the coronavirus threat, and the unique challenges that the population of Kauai would face in the difficult days ahead. I have never been happier with a vote I cast, and I continue to be grateful for Mayor Kawakami’s energetic response to this dire crisis.
Hutch, the reason we haven’t had any deaths here is because we are practicing social distancing and following the mayor’s guidelines.
When Kauai reopens to travelers from the mainland, perhaps there should be a screening
either before they get on the plane or when they arrive to check temperatures at the gate or
some method to eliminate the risk of more people coming who carry the virus. Testing is going to be key. It might take more time, but before getting on a plane, it seems that people should have a “green light” to be virus free to travel to Hawaii. It’s the only way to help everyone feel safe again!
Thank you for posting the current status of infection on Kaua’i at the top!
So because the measures taken to prevent spread have been a success in preventing spread, we are supposed to declare victory and abandon those measures while many people in the world are still spreading the disease and others are dying from it?
Only a “well below 2%” death rate?
The reason there are “none. Zero. Nada. Zilch.” deaths on Kauai is because there are only 21 people infected, and none of them are spreading it, precisely because of the measures taken.
The “declare return business as usual” plan says upwards of 80,000 island residents sooner or later get infected. Less than 2% of 80,000 people is upwards of 1,600 dead. Is that really what you are advocating?!?
Congratulations to state and county officials in managing the covid crisis. I fully support testing of all travelers (From the mainland orinter island) who intend to fly to Lihue. Woof!
First of all, I did not support Derek in the last election. This virus has taken a toll o n everyone around the world. Derek and his KEMA staff has been ahead of the game in due to Kauai’s response to this emergency, which has made Kauai lead the state in contracting the virus to the “0” deaths.
Even “2%” is too many deaths.
My friends from the other Counties have been in constant touch in which they wished that they had a Mayor in their County that took immediate action to prevent the spread. I totally agree with them, Derek has responded better then the Governor has done so far.
I totally support Derek and his KEMA Staff and he defiantly has my vote for any future office hi might run for in the future.