Bi-Weekly COVID-19 Report: May 13, 2021

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Dr. Janet Berreman,  Kauai‘’s District Health Officer, provided an update on cases for Mayor Derek SK Kawakami’s bi-weekly COVID report on Thursday, May 13.

Last week, Berreman said, the Garden Island was the focus of the weekly Department of Health COVID cluster report after identifying two restaurant clusters and two workplace clusters.

Berreman said the restaurant clusters involved a total of 32 cases where 28 employees were infected and the remaining count was spread to close contacts.

“Those numbers have not grown since last week,” Berreman said. “It’s been two weeks since those exposures took place and the fact that we’re not seeing further spread is very encouraging.”

Additionally, the two smaller workplace clusters haven’t shown any further spread.

“Our cases are coming down,” Berreman said. “Kaua‘i no longer has the highest per population case rate in the state, and with continued care, I’m optimistic we can return to our familiar position of lowest disease rate in the state.”

To continue the downward turn in cases, Berreman advised that it depends on all residents to get vaccinated and take precautions, such as avoiding crowded places, wearing a mask and staying home when sick.

As of Thursday, May 13, no new COVID-19 cases were reported on Kaua‘i. The island has a cumulative case count of 347.

“We remain at Tier 3 for at least another week but we continue to see our cases stabilize, which is a good sign,” Kawakami said. “We can continue to keep our case count low by practicing good safety measures.”