Daily News Digest

Lieutenant Governor’s Office: COVID-19 Update As of today, Lt. Gov. Josh Green and two deputy sheriffs remain the only three (3) positive COVID-19 cases in the Lieutenant Governor’s Office. All eleven (11) other employees have tested negative. Additionally, Lt. Gov. Green’s wife and two children have tested negative. Everyone will remain in quarantine until cleared by Department of Health investigators. Department of Health: Case Numbers Continue to Level Off DOH is reporting 66 new cases today and one (1) death. An O‘ahu man, with underlying health conditions who had been hospitalized, becomes the 100th person to die from [...]

Lieutenant Governor’s Office: Update on LG’s Office COVID-19 Exposure As Lt. Gov. Josh Green self-isolates at home, a second deputy sheriff assigned to his security detail has tested positive for COVID-19. Lt. Gov. Green received a positive coronavirus test on Friday after the first deputy received a positive test earlier in the day. Office employees were immediately sent home and are all following Department of Health guidance and quarantining. All 11 employees have been tested with one result coming back as negative and the others are pending results. Additionally, employees of a local radio station who met with [...]

Lieutenant Governor’s Office: Statement on Behalf of the Lieutenant Governor’s Office A member of the Lieutenant Governor’s team has tested positive for COVID-19, and the office was notified at 9 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 11. The office’s 14 employees, including administrative and executive teams and security detail, will quarantine and get tested. Last Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Green received a routine COVID-19 test prior to his emergency room shift, and the test was negative. Lt. Gov. Green will be tested again today, as he was in close contact with the positive team member and will isolate accordingly. Lt. Gov. [...]

Department of Health:  Decline in COVID-19 Cases Seen as a Positive Indication Measures are Working After nearly six weeks of elevated numbers of positive COVID-19 cases, Hawai‘i is beginning to turn the corner and regain control of the spread of the disease on all islands. On July 29, DOH reported the number of cases had exceeded 100 for the first time. By early August, the daily number exceeded 200. The case numbers this week appear to be declining with 169 new cases reported today. The seven-day positive case rate is currently 3.3%. “This didn’t happen by accident or [...]

Department of Health: Three Additional O‘ahu Deaths and 100 New Cases Three (3) O‘ahu men are the latest people to pass away from coronavirus. All three had underlying medical conditions. Two were in the 60 to 69-year-old age group and the third was in the 70 to 79-year-old age group. Their deaths increase Hawai‘i’s death toll to 91. The DOH is aware of six (6) additional deaths associated with COVID-19 at the Yukio Okutsu Veterans Home in Hilo. To confirm these deaths, the department is waiting on medical records from the facility. Confirmation of all COVID-19 deaths is based [...]

Office of the Governor: Governor Approves Extension of Stay-at-Home Order for O‘ahu with Modifications Gov. David Ige has approved another two-week extension of the “State-at-Home, Work-at-Home” order for the City and County of Honolulu, which will now end Sept. 24. In a news briefing today, Gov. Ige said, “We have seen a flattening in the number of new cases ... but we are still not where we need to be. I do know that the mandates have been a significant burden on all of us. We have all made sacrifices over the weeks and months since the COVID pandemic started.” The order [...]

Department of Health: 271 New Cases and Two Additional COVID-19 Deaths Two O‘ahu residents, a man in the 60 to 69-year-old age group and a woman, older than 80, are the latest victims to pass away from COVID-19. Both had underlying health conditions and had been hospitalized. Hawai‘i COVID-19 Counts as of 12:00 noon, Sept. 4, 2020 Island of Diagnosis New Cases Reported since 2/28/2020 (including new cases) O‘ahu 236 8,575 Hawai‘i 34 469 Maui 1 343 Kaua‘i 0 57 Moloka‘i 0 4 Lānaʻi 0 0 HI residents diagnosed outside of HI 0 25 Total Cases 271 9,473 Deaths    [...]

Governor’s Office: Free Surge Testing Continues and is Encouraged Governor David Ige is again encouraging everyone on O‘ahu who has not been tested for COVID-19 to take advantage of free testing at various sites around the island for the next 10 days. The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams secured 90,000 test kits for Hawai‘i. Already thousands of people have been tested over the past week, including many who lined both entrances of the H-3 Freeway, for free testing in the tunnels. This was the second day of testing at [...]

Department of Health: 339 New Cases and One Additional COVID-19 Death An O‘ahu man, in the 50 to 59-year-old age group, is the 75th person to pass away from coronavirus in Hawai‘i since the beginning of the pandemic. He had underlying conditions and had been in the hospital. Of the 339 new positive cases reported today, 90 are from previous illness onset and represent past infection. Please see the footnote below for a further explanation of the previous cases added to today’s count. Health Director Dr. Bruce Anderson said, “It is important to point out that 27 of the total [...]

Governor’s Office: Thousands Tested in Unique H-3 Surge Testing With a string of people lined up in their vehicles to receive their free COVID-19 test as a backdrop, Gov. Ige discussed today’s H-3 Freeway surge testing program. The governor and organizers of the event believe this, combined with a repeat testing day on Thursday, will allow tens of thousands of O‘ahu residents to get tested for COVID-19. Free testing kits were provided by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. The event is a collaborative effort of the Honolulu Fire Dept. (HFD), the Honolulu Police Dept. (HPD)., the [...]