COVID-19 confirmed in Hawaii: 607+ cases 16 deaths

[macuu222]

Big Island has the largest one day positive corvid19 total since virus tracking began.

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/08/2...new-cases/

[ChunksterK]

Today's total was 277 new cases statewide, with 23 on the Big Island, plus two more Oahu fatalities. From macuu222's link in the post above:

"Health officials said there are indications that infections in Honolulu are beginning to stabilize, but they are concerned about growing cases on Maui and Hawaii island . . . Officials said that two recent large gatherings — a beach gathering and a large funeral — on the Big Island were of particular concern."

It sounds like the same careless attitude on the part of the public that got Oahu shut down again has spread to our locality.

[kalakoa]

It's really difficult to keep people locked down, especially in the absence of a clear plan. Arbitrary restrictions that vary per-island, poorly communicated, with no predictable endgame ... eventually people stop believing in any of it, and start doing as they please.

Large® gatherings on the Big Island were permissible under Kim's version of the emergency declaration, meanwhile we can't even get compliance with "masks mandatory in public". What did we think would happen?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

What did we think would happen?

It’s playing out about the way you’d expect among a population that will repeatedly fly to Las Vegas, give the casinos yet another pile of money, because they’ve got a good feeling they’ll win big.  For sure. This time they’re feeling lucky.

[randomq]

I'm not surprised Kai Kahele did not wear a mask at a huge gathering. Really, he should have worn two, one for each face.

[TomK]

I enjoyed your comment, randomq, it brought a smile to my face. I don't know Kai Kahele's email address, but you can supposedly contact him via this web page:

https://www.kaikahele.com/contact/

I'll be trying and suggest others do as well. I don't hold out any hope of getting an answer, but at the very least you can try.

PS.I sent this to info@kaikahele.com

"Hello,

I would like to ask Kai Kahele to provide his opinion on the current COVID-19 restrictions in Hawaii and why he felt it necessary to recently attend a large gathering on the Big Island with little to no social distancing and without a mask. Does he believe there is no need for restrictions and if he does, why did he ignore them?

Thank you,
Tom"

[TomK]

As I expected, I've received no reply from Kai Kahele's office.

In the meantime, we had 26 new cases identified on the Big Island. It doesn't sound much, but scaling things between populations it would be the equivalent over 100 cases on Oahu. The more troubling part of this is most cases are in Hilo and the numbers in Puna are increasing. This means the cases per population is a little higher than reported since it's concentrated in a small area.

If the 10:1 ratio of unknown:known cases is still valid, then obviously there is a significant potential for more people being infected even if they think they've taken all the precautions they can. Please stay as safe as you can, everyone.

[eightfingers2.0]

Any idea where the new cases are besides “Hilo”? Is there a cluster?

[kalakoa]

We're lucky the DOH is even being so specific as to name "Hilo".

[ChunksterK]

@eightfingers2.0: A few days ago, there was mention in the media of two clusters in Hilo. One was a very disturbing outbreak at the Veteran's Home and the other was from a "large funeral." Fortunately, the Vet's home was the smaller of the two as far as one could tell from the vague reports. The lack of specificity regarding cluster locations has widely been criticized by citizens on social media and in newspaper comment boards, but the officials and politicians keep using patient confidentiality as a reason not to tell us more.

On a related note, the Hawaii County Civil Defense radio announcements and website messages are done at 8 a.m., and the state updates the data around noon. So we get day old info most of the time. Today they actually updated their 8 a.m. piece (which had yesterday's numbers) late in the day to announce extended testing hours. They didn't bother, however, to add the new infection numbers which jumped from yesterday's 26 to 39, an increase of 50%. Nor did they mention that 17 people (four in ICU) on this island are now in the hospital with Covid. Oh, well. That grinning idiot Talmadge Magno is still in charge over there, so I shouldn't be surprised.