HONOLULU (AP) - Hawaii officials on Tuesday acknowledged progress in slowing the spread of coronavirus in the islands yet warned against complacency as they disclosed the existence of a cluster of 12 cases connected to a McDonald’s worker on the Big Island.
Hawaii has a recorded 517 cases of COVID-19, including nine new cases in the islands and four cases of Hawaii residents diagnosed out of state. This comes after the state had just five cases on Monday.
“That is an extraordinary, extraordinary achievement on your part,” Lt. Gov. Josh Green said at a news briefing streamed online and broadcast on television.
“Your self-sacrifice has not gone unnoticed. Had we not sacrificed so much, by staying at home by not going to work, by sacrificing some of our economic opportunity - instead of having 517 cases, we would have had 5,000 or more cases. I can say that with absolute certainty,” Green said.
Green and other officials urged the public not to become overconfident and to continue to obey Gov. David Ige’s stay-at-home order, which is in effect through April 30.
Officials underscored the infectious nature of the virus with the news that an employee at a McDonald’s in Kona spread the virus to seven coworkers. Two of the workers then infected a total of five family members. The cluster was spread across two McDonald’s locations, one at Kona Commons and the other at Walmart in Kailua-Kona.
All of those who tested positive were placed in quarantine, as were those who were exposed.
Bruce Anderson, the director of the state Department of Health, initially said the cluster involved 14 cases, but the department later corrected the figure.
Anderson said there was no evidence the individual spread the disease to customers.
Anderson said McDonald’s workers were wearing protective gear and following proper social distancing protocols to protect customers.
The McDonald’s cluster accounts for one-third of the Big Island’s 41 cases.
Ige said he has begun talking with Hawaii’s mayors and emergency managers about what might prompt a relaxation of social distancing measures. He said they are working with epidemiologists and other scientists to decide when would be the best time to ease up on the restrictions.
“We are very cognizant that if we take too quick action to reduce social distancing efforts that we will see a spike in the number of cases,” Ige said. “So we want to be thoughtful.”
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