Mayor: COVID Spike Expected to Rise

Kaua‘i’s COVID-19 case numbers are expected to get even worse, officials cautioned during a Monday informational briefing.

Holiday gatherings and travel should increase the number of new cases on the Garden Isle even more than it has experienced thus far, which is already the most new cases per day since the pandemic began. The Hawai‘i State Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Office reported a fatality and announced 104 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, Jan. 3. That puts Kauai’s daily new case average at 114.

“By far, the highest we’ve seen,” Mayor Derek Kawakami said.

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Last week, the daily new-case count was around 50. Two weeks ago, it was at 15.

Monday’s fatality was a female resident in her 70s who was hospitalized. There are a total of 18 Kaua‘i COVID fatalities to date. To help deal with the expected surge, the mayor said that they will be hiring additional staff for the Kaua‘i District Health Office and county incident team.

Currently, there are three active clusters on the island. Two are from social gatherings and one is from an occupational setting. While officials are expecting new cases to rise, they also expect the number of active cases to drop off Tuesday because the county will be following the new CDC guidelines that reduce the isolation period from 10 days to five. Those who are immunized and no longer suffer from symptoms only can end their quarantine periods after five days, per the new guidelines.

Today’s cases bring the number of active cases to 706 on the Garden Isle, with seven hospitalized, and 4,436 cumulative cases. Kaua‘i’s cumulative case count includes 4,367 confirmed locally, eight probable, and 61 positive cases diagnosed elsewhere, as they received their pre-travel test results after arriving on island.

For more information on the county’s COVID-19 response, visit www.kauai.gov/COVID-19.