The State Department of Health announced another double-digit COVID-19 case increase today, with 23 new cases.  The state now has a cumulative case count of 1,094 with 811 released from isolation. On Tuesday, the state added 41, the highest daily count the state has seen.

Hawaii Island added one new case today.  According to Hawaii County Civil Defense this morning, the Big Island has 9 active cases, all around the island, being monitored by the State Department of Health, even though the chart below still shows 8.  The island’s cumulative case count is 96.

Maui County added 2 cases, making its cumulative count 130, with 116 released from isolation.

O’ahu added 20 to its case count today.  O’ahu has had 808 cases with 572 released from isolation.

One bright spot is that the state’s death toll from COVID-19 has not increased from 19.

On Monday and Tuesday in briefings, State Health Director Bruce Anderson and State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said most of the cases were associated with gatherings for Father’s Day, people at bars, a card game, a funeral, and other gatherings where people were not distancing and often not wearing masks.  Anderson also said he was concerned about cases popping up that are not associated with known clusters, as that indicates community spread is rampant.  Dr. Park said evidence of that is also that the DOH is seeing more cases of influenza and colds, which are also spread from person to person.  Dr. Park said COVID-19 is far more contagious than either influenza (flu) or colds.  They urged everybody to understand that while our hospitals currently have adequate capacity to handle any surge…the only way the virus will not spread is if people take care not to spread it to others.  The fate of the virus here is in the hands of every person in the state.

The State Department of Health’s island-by-island noon update: