There was an article today about LG Green's security people and their COVID-19 tests that I found confusing. What I understand is of the 2 people in the LG's security detail, the one whom I shall call Cop A, got one of the surge tests and was told he was negative. Later Cop B (who has a chronic cough) tested positive which started a round of testing for all the LG's staff and family. And Cop A comes back with a positive test. So people are now saying Cop A had a false negative from the surge test. And although the nasopharyngeal swab, which was used to do the testing on the LG & staff after Cop B reported being positive is more sensitive than the swabbing of the nares done for the surge testing, a couple important pieces of information are missing from the news article. A big one being what dates did Cop A get the 2 different tests. It could be that the initial negative test was given prior to Cop A becoming infected, or it could have been given before Cop A began to shed virus particles. The surge testing started 11 days prior to the date the LG is believed to have been infected; that's a pretty big window. More data, please!
This morning I skipped the walk again; I need to find my new Hokas! As I was getting dressed I heard a funny sound in the family room; it turned out to be Keala in the kitchen playing with one of their toys. The toy wiggles and flashes a certain amount of time after it is touched by a cat, then it is still until it is touched again. The wiggling was what I was hearing.
Those cats are spoiled, the living room is essentially their playroom. There was a new toy there this morning. It's like a tunnel with a cube at one end to keep it from collapsing like their other tunnel. It looked sort of like a live trap... S'mores and Keala were napping in the corner, looking very peaceful and cute.
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| S'mores napping. But where's Keala? |
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| Oh there she is! In the corner! |
The nasturtiums were looking good this afternoon! I only found 2 wilted leaves and they were on different plants; I think I damaged them while planting them out. Time will tell. I also took a closer look at the portions of the planting trough under the shade cloth; the easterly most part gets enough sun through part of the day that there was a fern starting to grow quite well there. The next foot further west not doing as well. And another foot even further west and it was barren.
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| The nasturtiums at about 10 in the morning. |
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| This fern is directly under the shade cloth but gets morning sun until a little past 10 am. |
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| This part gets very early morning sun and not much of it. |
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| This area get no sun. Maybe I should start some mushrooms here? |
The disturbance is still about 800 miles southeast of us. It is predicted to have a 10% chance of becoming a storm over the next 5 days. Tropical Storm Karina is not expected to become a hurricane in the next 5 days.
As I mentioned yesterday, now that the surge testing has ended and the testing focus goes back to those who are symptomatic or have been exposed to a positive case, the positivity rate for COVID-19 will go up. An article this morning echoed that.
I discovered a new data dashboard today; it is from COVIDpau.org, a project of the Hawaiʻi COVID Collaborative. These graphs are much clearer than the ones on the new DOH prototype and their data appears to be more up to date. One downside, though, is their graph on Rate of Transmission; I can't find where they are getting that data from. Theoretically, you could get it from contact tracing information; but since that has been problematic, if that is where the data is coming from, the data is also suspect. I will be interested to see how this changes after Dr. Roberson gets the contact tracing straightened out and working effectively.
I watched a FiveThirtyEight video on COVID-19 testing and how people of color have a more difficult time getting a test than white people. Even when income is taken in to consideration, black & Latino communities still had less access to testing sites.
A Bank of Hawaiʻi employee tested positive so the branch where that person worked at is being sanitized. The bank's protocol is to have the branch sanitized when there may have been an exposure.
Kauaʻi County got approved to do "resort bubbles", which means visitors may leave their hotel room but they can't leave the hotel property. They have to wear GPS monitors so that hotel security knows they aren't leaving the property. I'm not sure but it seems like these are like ankle monitors that people under house arrest are supposed to wear; I seem to recall that some of those folks have been able to take them off and escape! Although I don't think the GPS units would be locked on to the tourists. Masks and physical distancing will still be required and all the GPS details have not yet been worked out. They anticipate it may be up and running by the end of October. It will be interesting to see how this works.
There were 66 new COVID-19 cases , bringing to total known cases up to 10,844; of that 6859 are still active cases. There was 1 new death reported, bringing that total up to100.
And in case you are wondering, I was not contacted in any manner today by the department of health about contact tracing. And the training that they wanted me to be available for begins tomorrow morning at 7:45 am so it looks like I have also been rejected like almost every other person in my cohort. I have requested the information on the contact tracer position from the Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Health Center; I did not get trained to just sit around doing nothing while I wait for the health department to get organized!
Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Anne, Nina, & Simon!
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