Hawaii State Department of Health reports that the state has 231 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, which brings the state total to 3,346. There are 2,804 active cases in the state.
O’ahu added 223 cases. O’ahu has a cumulative 2,964 cases of which 1,737 are now active.
Maui added 3 cases, bringing its cumulative total to 184, with 31 active cases.
The Big Island added 5 new cases. That brings the Big Island’s cumulative to 128, with 13 currently active and being monitored by the State Department of Health.
One new death was reported, but State DOH removed one death from the count, saying the person’s underlying condition, not COVID-19, caused the death. The total number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the state is 31.
Because of the increase in cases in the State, Gov. David Ige has reinstated a modified interisland 14-day self quarantine–anybody traveling to a neighbor island must quarantine, but flying to O’ahu does not require a quarantine. In addition, City and County of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell has shut down parks, beaches, and anyplace people are likely to gather in groups, as that is the major cause of the spread on that island.
At the Governor’s Thursday press conference, State Health Director Bruce Anderson said the virus is “endemic” on O’ahu, and also said the Department has sufficient contact tracers but it’s getting more difficult to track the cases because of widespread community transmission. On Friday evening Hawaii News Now reported that the members of the State Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 paid a surprise visit to the State Department of Health to visit with some of the DOH contract tracers. Although Dr. Anderson and State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park have repeatedly said they have enough contact tracers, and that each tracer could handle 20 to 30 cases, what the State Senators found were just a few contact tracers with more than 100 cases to trace, and in one case, one tracer had 192. Even as Dr. Anderson is reported by KITV to have called the unannounced visit “reprehensible,” Dr. Sarah Park on camera said she was glad for the visit because the Department has insufficient funding. This comes as the State has received more than $30 million in Federal CARES Funding for contact tracing, and as the State DOH has touted its contact tracing training through the University of Hawaii, which has already trained more than 400 people. But most of them have not been hired.
The State’s detailed report as of noon on Saturday, August 8, 2020:
Hawaii County
Total Cases: | 128 |
Released from Isolation: | 115 |
Required Hospitalization: | 4 |
Deaths: | 0 |
Honolulu County
Total Cases: | 2,964 |
Released from Isolation: | 1,203 |
Required Hospitalization: | 204 |
Deaths: | 24 |
Kauai County
Total Cases: | 47 |
Released from Isolation: | 46 |
Required Hospitalization: | 1 |
Deaths: | 0 |
Maui County
Total Cases: | 184 |
Released from Isolation: | 147 |
Required Hospitalization: | 26 |
Deaths: | 6 |
Out of state
Total Cases: | 23 |
Released from Isolation: | 0 |
Required Hospitalization: | 2 |
Deaths: | 1 |
Pending
Total Cases: | 0 |
Released from Isolation: | 0 |
Required Hospitalization: | 0 |
Deaths: | 0 |