Green: Queen’s seeing uptick in COVID-19 patients from Kalihi cluster

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Several Oahu hospitals are reporting a troubling uptick in COVID-19 cases and some of the patients are in the intensive care unit, Lt. Gov. Josh Green said.

Green told Hawaii News Now on Tuesday that there was a recent cluster coming from the Kalihi area.

“This is a real surge and I think in the next two weeks, we’re going to see higher hospital numbers,” he said.

Green said more than two dozen people were reported to be at the Queen’s Medical Center, and as many as six of them are on ventilators.

Many of those cases are of those who live in close quarters where it’s impossible to socially distance, he said.

“It’s when you have lots of people living in a similar small household, same small flat where they can connect and …spread to each other and we can’t trace them adequately,” he said.

Green also pointed to parties and funerals as sources of clusters.

These types of events, along with not enough people wearing masks, are why he believes there should tighter restrictions on gatherings and wants to see a decrease of groups to 10 people.

Over the past few days, Hawaii has seen a rise in coronavirus cases, prompting county mayors to call for reversing some reopening plans.

On Monday, Hawaii reported 28 new coronavirus cases, a dramatic from previous days. But the state attributed that to a decrease in testing at private labs due to Hurricane Douglas.

Green believes it won’t be until Wednesday when Hawaii will see a more accurate count of cases.

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