But Victorino said he is ready to “act immediately” if needed
With Maui County seeing a recording-breaking 734 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases Thursday, Mayor Michael Victorino said he was not yet implementing new public health restrictions but would act “immediately” if needed.
“We are closely monitoring the county’s health care capacity as the primary metric to determine if, and when, any new public health restrictions are appropriate,” Victorino said in an email Thursday afternoon. “At this point, we are fine, but the situation is changing rapidly and I will not hesitate to act immediately, if needed.”
Victorino did announce plans Thursday to delay the rollout of the county’s new rules to define “fully vaccinated” as someone who has received their primary series as well as the booster shot. The change was set to take effect Saturday but has been pushed back to Jan. 24 to ensure eligible adolescents and others have sufficient time to get their booster shots, according to a county news release.
New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance recently expanded eligibility for booster doses to Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for those ages 12 to 17.
Victorino called the spike in cases “concerning, but was not unexpected,” with medical advisers warning of the highly contagious omicron variant.
On Thursday, Maui island saw 676 new cases, Molokai had 41 and Lanai reported 17.
Across the state there were 4,789 new confirmed and probable cases reported, also a record.
Victorino said that for Maui County, “the good news is we’re seeing increased demand for booster shots through the county and thousands are using our free expanded testing programs.”
“We ask people to use their common sense and not wait for new mandates to change their behavior,” Victorino added.
This includes avoiding large gatherings indoors and outdoors, limiting outings to essential activities and listening to the CDC, which is advising that a disposable medical mask offers the best protection from the omicron variant.
On Thursday, Maui Health, which operates Maui Memorial Medical Center, said with the high surge in cases, it expects to see an increase in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
In the last two days, Maui Health said it has admitted seven additional COVID-19 patients, none of whom received their booster dose.
On Thursday there were 20 COVID-positive patients in the hospital, with one patient in the ICU. None were on a ventilator. Of the 20 patients, 10 are vaccinated, but none received their booster shot.
“It’s absolutely vital all eligible residents receive the booster does of the vaccine,” Maui Health said in a statement.
Maui Memorial will be following the state Department of Health’s most recent recommendation to extend the booster dose of the vaccine to children ages 12 to 17.
In addition, it will provide a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to moderately to severely immunocompromised children ages 5 to 11 at least 28 days after their second dose.
Lt. Gov. Dr. Josh Green said on his Facebook page Thursday that the cases are a result of the holidays and said there is a “ton of omicron.”
He said there were 215 in the hospital across the state, which is about half the number of hospitalizations during the peak of the delta variant surge when 448 were hospitalized. Out of the 215 currently in the hospital, 101 were vaccinated.
Like Maui Health, Green urged people to get their booster shot as “that will keep a person out of the ICU.”
He added that majority of the 3,000 or so cases that the state is seeing per day are mild.
