Another grim day as Hawaii sees 2 more coronavirus deaths

Hawaii’s death toll from COVID-19 stands at 24 after health officials announced Friday the death of two more Oahu residents.

One was an elderly man who was in isolation at home with family and had an underlying condition, according to the state Department of Health. The other was an elderly woman with underlying conditions who died on Thursday, the DOH said. No further details were released.

“It strikes at all of our hearts, each and every time we have to report another casualty of COVID-19,” DOH Director Bruce Anderson said in a statement. “Please be safe and practice all precautions. People who have been sick with this disease and tragically the victims of coronavirus and their loved ones, deserve that respect and care from each and everyone one of us in Hawai‘i.”

Officials also reported 23 new confirmed coronavirus cases, bringing the statewide total number of infections since the start of the outbreak to 1,334. The new cases include 20 on Oahu, two on Hawaii island and one resident diagnosed outside of Hawaii, according to the Health Department.

Fifteen of the other deaths have been on Oahu, six have been on Maui, and one was a Kauai resident who died in Arizona.

“I really hope everyone wears masks this weekend,” Lt. Gov. Josh Green said Friday. “We need to flatten this curve.”

Fearing that massive surges of the coronavirus on the mainland would boost case numbers here if travel restrictions were eased, Gov. David Ige signed his 10th emergency proclamation Friday, keeping the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine in effect for travelers entering the state. Ige announced earlier in the week that plans for pretravel testing of Hawaii-bound passengers would be delayed until Sept. 1.

That plan should be helped along by thermal temperature screening and facial-imaging technology being installed immediately at Hawaii’s major airports.

The state Department of Transportation announced Thursday it had awarded a $37.5 million contract to NEC Corp. and partner Infrared Cameras Inc., to install and maintain the equipment.

“We recognize that temperature screening won’t catch every infected passenger, but it is an available tool that can be implemented and combined with the additional measures the state is providing to help prevent the spread of this virus, while helping rebuild the economy,” Ige said in a statement.

As of Friday, Hawaii has 317 active COVID-19 infections.

A total of 994 patients, or 74% of those infected, are now classified by health officials as “released from isolation.” Nineteen new release cases — 18 on Oahu and one on the Big Island — were reported Friday.

The new statewide coronavirus case total includes 1,025 on Oahu, 135 in Maui County, 109 on Hawaii island, and 43 in Kauai County, according to health officials. Also counted are 22 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed while outside of the state.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases since the start of the outbreak, 139 have required hospitalization, with one new hospitalization on Oahu reported by health officials Friday.

Green said there are 39 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients currently in isle hospitals, including six who are in intensive care units and two who are on ventilators.

Of the 102,995 coronavirus tests conducted so far by state and clinical laboratories in Hawaii, 1.3% have been positive. Health officials counted 1,817 new test results in Friday’s tally.

Driver tests positive

Recent cases revealed this week include the operator of TheHandi-Van on Oahu and three medical professionals working on Hawaii island.

O‘ahu Transit Services Inc. said Friday a driver informed the company Monday that a household member had tested positive for the virus. The driver, who did not have any symptoms while working that day, was immediately placed on leave and quarantined.

The driver was tested Wednesday and received a positive result Thursday night, the company said in a statement. O‘ahu Transit Services, which operates TheBus and TheHandi-Van, notified passengers and employees and found no prolonged close contact between them and the infected driver, the statement said.

The Handi-Van operated by the driver was thoroughly disinfected and cleaned.

Passengers are required to use face coverings while riding TheHandi-Van and TheBus, and all transit vehicles are disinfected daily by wiping down all touch surfaces manually with a strong antivirus disinfectant and also receive nightly disinfecting fogging using an electrostatic spraying system, according to O‘ahu Transit Services. All drivers are temperature-checked daily before their shifts.

The three medical professionals who tested positive are two Kona Community Hospital employees and a traveling doctor who worked briefly at Kau Hospital and Rural Health Clinic in Pahala.

Kau Hospital administrator Merilyn Harris said the doctor worked at the facility’s rural health clinic for two days and tested positive July 6 after feeling unwell. The state Department of Health was notified and administrators began identifying people the doctor might have been in contact with, Harris said.

The physician saw 11 patients over two days at the clinic, but the doctor and patients wore masks. The patients were tested for coronavirus with negative results, Harris said. The names of employees who had contact with the doctor also were reported to the Health Department and clinic employees were tested five days after potential exposure, with all tests negative.

Kona Community Hospital spokeswoman Judy Donovan said the two employees who recently tested positive were quarantined at home. The hospital had one previous employee who tested positive and also is self-quarantined. In the wake of the two new cases, all hospital employees were being tested.

Hawaii sees 737 visitors

Meanwhile, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported Friday that 2,616 people arrived Thursday in the islands from out of state, including 737 visitors and 863 returning residents.

All arriving passengers — residents or not — are subject to the 14-day quarantine unless they have an exemption. State officials said Friday that at least 182 people have been arrested by state or county law enforcement officers for violating emergency quarantine rules, including 99 on Hawaii island, 46 on Kauai and 16 in Maui County.

On Oahu, special investigators with the Department of the Attorney General have made 21 such arrests. (Although the Honolulu Police Department does respond to reports of violations of all emergency rules, specific statistics for quarantine violations were not available.)

A “calling team” of 80 workers from HTA, the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau, Hawaii County Civil Defense and the Maui Police Department have contacted well over 27,000 travelers and made more than 113,000 phone calls, texts and emails since the quarantine order went into effect at the end of March, state officials said during a Facebook Live session Thursday.

Team members call visitors as many as three times during their two-week-long quarantines. Some 7,145 are still actively being tracked, the officials said.

Since the end of March, the team has flagged 667 travel parties for suspected or reported violations.

Staff volunteers from the state DOT contact returning residents, utilizing many of the same procedures as the team tracking quarantined visitors, officials said. Additionally, investigators with the attorney general’s office conduct random compliance checks on people who are in quarantine.

Arriving air passengers will soon undergo additional scrutiny when they step off the plane once the new thermal temperature screening and facial-imaging technology is installed at airports.

A thermal temperature screening system will be placed immediately at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Kahului Airport, Lihue Airport, Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole and Hilo International Airport, according to a DOT news release.

Testing program nears

Phase 1 will have the temperature scanners installed this month at the gates currently being used for arriving trans-Pacific flights. Phase 2 will have the temperature scanners installed at the remaining gates in the coming weeks, and the final phase expects to have facial-imaging equipment installed by Dec. 31, the release said.

The contract includes $23.3 million for equipment and installation and a $1.42 million, 10-year maintenance plan. A selection committee evaluated four systems and technologies before determining the proposals by NEC and Infrared Cameras were “the best fit for Hawaii’s needs,” the news release said.

Raffie Beroukhim, chief experience officer for NEC Corp. of America, said in the release that the automated screening system is designed to handle a high volume of passengers. Officials said thermal image capture technology also is safer and more cost-effective than manual temperature checks.

Beroukhim explained that without facial-imaging technology, an employee would need to be next to each camera at all times to pull passengers aside as they walk by, creating bottlenecks and exposing employees to travelers who may be infected with COVID-19.

In addressing privacy concerns about such systems, officials said the equipment at Hawaii airports will only temporarily retain a photo of a passenger with an elevated temperature of 100.4 degrees and above to help airport representatives identify them and conduct additional assessments to determine if health precautions are necessary. The photo will be erased within 30 minutes and will not be shared with outside agencies, the release said.

Passengers with a temperature below 100.4 degrees will not have their image retained at all.

No personal information, such as name, address or driver’s license number, will be contained in the system, the release said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.