My Summer Vacation: Pau ka Papa!

Today was the last day of class for the Community Contact Tracing Training. We started with the final team project hō'ike which was a poster plus a 2 minute video explaining the poster. Our team went first and got it out of the way; we geared our PSA towards kids. (Sorry, couldnʻt figure out how to make the video as wide as the column. To see a full-screen video, go here.)

Here are shots of some of the other hōʻike presentations. This first one is from Team Laulima.

This is the poster from The Sugar Cane Squad. The frames after the ppster are from their video as they explained each section.

Team 'Imi a Loa'a did something slightly different; this is more like what Cohort 1v2 did for their hōʻike. They showed how a Samoan funeral was conducted following the safety guidelines but also allowing for cultural practices. It was very well done and will be used as an example by both the mortuary and the community on how to safely honor cultural practices.

Team COVID Crusher followed with their poster and video explaining the poster. They ended with a presentation of lei to Dr. C and Dr. Ric; for each of our guest lecturers Dr. Ric would present them with lei as he introduced them.

We ended with Team COVID Contact Crew. Their poster was fairly detailed and they had a great video presentation. Because of the length of their video I am only showing a few of the frames.

After the hōʻike, we had an opportunity to thank people and offer a toast to all. I also shared a quote from Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

I also shared an ʻŌlelo Noʻeau.

After class, I checked my emails as always and found that my COVID-19 test results were back. I had to return to the eTrueNorth website where I had signed up to take the test to get my results. Ther was both a short note on the website as well as a longer pdf with the results and an explanation of the next steps.

Interestingly, when I opened up the blog this afternoon, it had reverted back to the old set-up. So I went with that and did not try to figure out what had happened. It is so much easier to use than the new version and I'm not saying that just because I don't know about the new version. The new versions auto-saves after about half a line of text and after each photo inserted and takes forever to save. I spend more time waiting than I do entering information.

Later in the evening, The Roommates gave me an orchid as a graduation gift. After it is done flowering, and on my return to the Big Island, I will take it back and plant it on one of the hāpuʻu in the anthurium garden.

There's been a bunch of upheaval in the department of health; the top 2 leaders abruptly went on leave and one is retiring in 2 weeks. The newly hired head of the contact tracing program requested leave a couple days ago until things got straightened out; it sounds like she was back some time today. Here's what they say about how many contact tracers & other personnel they have working on COVID-19 tracing right now. Most of our cohort received an email requesting information ASAP for training on Oʻahu beginning on the 16th. I didn't get contacted since I am listed for Hawaiʻi Island even though I am physically on Oʻahu right now; my name was forwarded to the health department yesterday to add to the pool.

There were 271 new COVID-19 cases today, bringing the total up to 9473; there were no new deaths reported today so that total remains at 81. There are now 6537 active cases in the state.The results from the surge testing are starting to come in now, which has decreased the positivity rate to 3.5%; this is in the 'green' range identified by Surgeon General Adams as being where a community should be working towards. Statewide the number of new cases has stayed level but Hawaiʻi Island has continued to show a slow increase in cases.

This is the information on the testing data. It appears that the surge data is being incorporated into the day that the tests were collected (as it should be).