Hawaii Daily COVID-19 Update: Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Hawaii Daily COVID-19 coronavirus reports and statistics from government departments as of Tuesday, April 28, 2020 in the Aloha State.

Department of Health:

Two Additional COVID-19 Cases Reported

Two new cases of coronavirus, both Maui adults, have been reported by DOH. One of the cases is a Lānaʻi resident who has been hospitalzed on Maui for an extended time. The patient was transported in early March to Maui for treatment not associated with coronavirus. The patient initially tested negative for COVID-19, but a recent test came back positive. This brings the total of COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i to 609 since Feb. 28, 2020. As of today, 318 cases are travel-associated, 234 are community-associated, and 57 with risk factors unknown at this time.

Hawai‘i Daily COVID-19 Update Counts as of 12:00 noon, April 28, 2020

** Refers to positive cases that have an unknown county of diagnosis at the time of this report. As more information becomes available for these cases, they are assigned to the proper County of Diagnosis. A negative number indicates the number of previously unknown cases that have now been assigned to a county.

Laboratory* Testing Data

*Electronic Laboratory Reporting       **20 test results were inconclusive.

For more tables please visit: https://health.hawaii.gov/docd/

Maui Memorial Cluster Update

On Monday, a statement was issued that the one positive case reported yesterday was an employee at Maui Memorial Medical Center (MMMC).  This was an error, the one positive case reported on April 27 on Maui was a hospitalist, an employee of Maui Medical Group, working at the hospital. The case is under investigation and the cause of infection is still being determined. At MMMC, 38 staff and 20 patients continue to be under investigation as potentially associated with the cluster. DOH is recommending the facility repeat in-service training for staff on proper PPE use, and other protective measures.

Virtual Pre-Opening Inspection of New Food Establishments

This morning the DOH Food Safety Branch conducted its first virtual pre-opening inspection of a restaurant. Utilizing video conferencing, the new Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant in Hawai‘i Kai, cleared its inspection and is planning to open for drive-through customers soon. Virtual inspections are only being utilized during the COVID-19 emergency for new restaurants. Follow-up, in-person inspections will be conducted within 30 days after the end of the current emergency rules. During the virtual inspection, restaurant managers walk inspectors remotely through their facility. They view the layout and ensure equipment is working properly. This includes checking the temperatures on refridgerators and freezers and the presence of sanitizing test kits. Normal food safety inspections are focused on identifying critical risk factors that could contribute to food-borne illnesses.

https://health.hawaii.gov/news/newsroom/hawaii-department-of-health-conducts-first-virtual-pre-opening-inspection-of-new-food-establishment/

Watch a portion of the Raising Cane’s virtual inspection here: https://vimeo.com/412943494

Hawai‘i Tourism Authority:

500 Passengers Arrive on Monday

Yesterday, 500 people arrived in Hawai‘i including 149 visitors and 160 residents. There was a total of 11 arriving flights. This table shows the number of people who arrived by air from out of state yesterday. The next table details interisland travel.

AIRPORT ARRIVALS FOR MONDAY, APRIL 27 2020

https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/media/4485/042820-passenger-count-press-release.pdf

Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism

INTERISLAND AIRPORT ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES FOR APRIL 25, 2020

https://dbedt.hawaii.gov/economic/covid19/

Department of Land and Natural Resources:

Hundreds of Citations & Warnings Issued During COVID-19 Emergency

Two, 21-year-old men from Honolulu were cited late yesterday for entering a closed area – Diamond Head State Monument. They were escorted out of the park by officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE). The park and other state parks are currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of last Friday, across the state, DOCARE officers issued a total of 107 citations for various violations associated with emergency rules. Many were for entering a closed state park, various other state park violations (such as alcohol possession), and parking violations. In addition to the citations they’d given out 304 warnings as of last Friday. A day earlier a DOCARE officer contacted a man walking his dog through Kaiwi State Scenic Shoreline in East O‘ahu. The main claimed he didn’t know the park was closed, even though he was standing next to yellow police tape and directly beneath a park closed sign.

DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla said, “We hope everyone will take these closures and emergency rules seriously, not only to protect themselves and our natural resources, but to respect the primary reason for our current closures…the requirements for social distancing.”

https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/blog/2020/04/28/nr20-052/

Yesterday’s Hawaii Daily COVID-19 update.