The State Department of Health is now releasing more detailed reports for each island about clusters of COVID-19 cases.  This is information that public officials on all islands have been requesting, as a way to help members of the community what the high risk behaviors and high risk settings are to spread the virus that causes COVID-19.  However, at this point, the DOH is only releasing generic data–not pinpointing WHERE a particular social gathering that helped spread COVID-19 was held, for example.   But this is a positive step forward.

A disease cluster refers to multiple cases of a disease occurring at one time, in one geographic location, or among people with the same or similar shared exposures.

In Hawai‘i, COVID-19 clusters associated with community events, social gatherings, workplaces, and other settings have helped public health officials understand the specific settings where disease transmission is most likely to occur. As our state looks to modify current restrictions on businesses and activities implemented in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Hawai‘i State Department of Health is prioritizing not only investigating and analyzing local COVID-19 clusters, but also sharing current cluster information and disseminating key lessons learned to date.

It is important to note that most COVID-19 cases cannot be linked to a specific setting or cluster.

This is the current Hawaii County report, which indicates the island has had 63 cases associated with two social gatherings.  The State DOH defines a social gathering as parties, group gatherings, weddings, funerals, and other social functions.  The report indicates that 29 of the people who got COVID-19 were at these two social gatherings, but 34 others were infected by those who had attended the gatherings.

 

Hawai‘i County COVID-19 Clusters Under Investigation in Last 14 Days by Exposure Setting November 12, 2020
Exposure Category	Clusters (#)	Total Cases (#)	Cases Associated with Primary Setting (#)	Linked Cases Outside Primary Setting (#)
Congregate Settings
Correctional Facilities	0	0	0	0
Educational Settings	0	0	0	0
Shelters	0	0	0	0
Food Service, Production, and Distribution
Bars & Nightclubs	0	0	0	0
Food Suppliers	0	0	0	0
Restaurants	0	0	0	0
Occupational Settings
Construction & Industrial	0	0	0	0
Other Occupational Settings	0	0	0	0
Travel, Lodging, & Tourism	0	0	0	0
Social and Recreational Activities
Social Gatherings	2	63	29	34
Places of Worship	0	0	0	0
Other:	0	0	0	0

 

The State DOH has defined terms it will be using in the reports:

 

Case	Both confirmed and probable cases of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), including deaths.
Confirmed case	A case with confirmatory laboratory evidence.
Probable case	Refers to a case: •   Meeting clinical criteria AND epidemiologic linkage with no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for SARS-CoV-2   OR •   Meeting presumptive laboratory evidence OR •   Meeting vital records criteria with no confirmatory laboratory evidence for SARS-CoV-2.
Cases associated with the primary setting	Refers to cases linked to a COVID-19 cluster that were directly exposed to the primary site or event.
Linked cases outside the primary setting	Refers to cases linked to a COVID-19 cluster that were NOT directly exposed to the primary site or event (for example, cases among household contacts of any cases associated with the primary setting).

The State DOH plans to report on clusters every Thursday.