Released 13 Today

People from isolation, that is. Today Dave had me working all day with Stuart, Joe, & Noah on follow-up calls. These are calls we make to the cases after the initial call; we track their symptoms and their isolation release dates. I had 2 files; there were 22 cases in the 1st file that I completed before lunch. I was able to contact 15 of these cases & check in with them; 7 cases did not answer when I called. I released 1 case.

Here's where I work; right now there are only 9 or 10 of us in this space.

For my proothie this morning I used the stems from the greens we have for salad. The arugula, mizuna, and the unknown lettuce all have considerable lengths of stalk without any greenery. I put the stalks from the Saturday lunch & dinner salads and the Sunday dinner salad into the proothie. I think I have to blend it longer; I did find a couple of pieces that were still a little stringy. Using the stems that aren't going in to the salad in my proothie helps reduce food waste.

 

I asked Dave about the Waiawa Correctional Facility cases. When I left on Thursday, we had 4 cases. Dave said by the end of Saturday, there were about another 100 cases; I had heard similar numbers on the news. He said he told DOH we can't do these cases since we don't have access to the inmates; he recommended the medical case worker at Waiawa be the person tracking these cases. That makes much more sense than us trying to work something out with Waiawa to do the follow-ups. On the news tonight they said there are now 103 infected inmates and 4 infected staff.

I got lunch at Down to Earth; it is kind of my go to place right now since I am trying to increase my plant based meals. Since I did not have as much time as the other days I opted for the pre-packaged Coconut Curry. I should have read the label more carefully, the chunks that I thought were tofu also included potato, sweet potato, and jack fruit; I think I got more carbs today than I was supposed to. Down to Earth is about a 10-minute walk from the Japanese Cultural Center; Kokua Market is about a 15-minute walk. I generally have a 30-minute lunch. (If it's slow Dave gives us a little extra time.)

After lunch I worked on the 2nd file which had 23 cases; I was able to release 12 of these cases from isolation. About 5 of them should have been released 7 to 10 days ago but other people kept calling them even though they no longer had symptoms and were feeling fine; I'm not really sure why. I asked Dave about releasing these cases; he concurred & said to mark them as "isolation completed" even if I was not able to reach the person. I think Dave likes that I have had the 6-week UH training so I have the confidence to make the decision to release someone in these circumstances.

One of the people I released today knew he got COVID-19 from his mother; he had gone to visit her in early November. The day after he got home she called to say she tested positive; he immediately quarantined and got a test, then went in to isolation. Sadly, his mom passed away from COVID-19 last week. Even though he is now released from isolation he says he will be staying away from people for a few more days to make sure he is clear of the virus; he doesn't want to have someone go through what he is going through now with the loss of his mom.

When I got home I made another batch of soymilk. I also dried the okara to use as a protein addition to my proothies. I'm kinda getting in to a rhythm when I make the soymilk & dry the okara. 

This is what I was able to squeeze out of the okara.

While I was making the soymilk I accidentally dropped the top of the Almond Cow while I was trying to attach the basket with the 2nd batch of soybeans to it. I thought everything was fine because the glass that got knocked over did not break; later I discovered the top must have hit the lip of another glass, it was missing a big chunk at the top.

 

Because I needed to make soymilk, I did not have enough time to do my workout before dinner.

For dinner I had the last 2 tasteless pieces of salmon from Sam's Club and a green salad with blue cheese crumbles. I added a little salt and a couple tablespoons of sour cream to the salmon; if sour cream can make lutefisk taste good enough to eat it will work on this salmon!

Looks like it was rainy in Kapaʻau again today. The Aix weather app forecast for Honolulu wasn't as accurate; it was very sunny when I walked to Down to Earth for lunch.

There was an earthquake in Alaska about lunch time today. It did not generate a tsunami.

There were 114 new COVID-19 cases today bringing the total up to 17,333 known cases. There were no deaths reported today, so the death toll remains at 233; there are now 1314 active cases. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 77 with a 2.5% positivity rate.