Confusion Reigns

On Wednesday we started making the First Contact Calls for Maui & Hawaiʻi Island as well as Oʻahu. Today they switched the return call message phones; previously there was a number for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd days after we received the file. Now the 1st calls number is for Oʻahu, the 2nd is for Maui, and the 3rd is for Hawaiʻi Island. So today I answered a call on the Maui line for a woman who actually lived on Oʻahu, she had gotten the 2nd call yesterday so she was given the number we were using for all 2nd calls yesterday which has now become the Maui line. It should get easier tomorrow since the 3rd calls today went to their respective island return call lines.

The other little bit of confusion that is happening is that, apparently, the Department of Health has not told the First Contact Callers on Maui and Hawaiʻi Island that they are no longer doing the calls. We got a lot of people saying they had already gotten calls from us. I did find out 2 out of the 3 that I got had actually gotten called by the Contact Tracer before we called; it's not supposed to happen that way but lately there has been more of that due to the automated reporting system breaking down more frequently. Maybe it can't handle the volume of new cases that we are having.

I got an email very early this morning from my friend Janice; she is coming to visit in January. She was looking up prices to get from the airport to her hotel. It's just as ridiculous as getting a rental car! I will be picking her up from the airport. 

It's Friday, so I weighed myself. I have to get back in to that habit so I can track how well I am doing with getting rid of my extra COVID weight! Cutting out those 3 walks a day & not being able to curb my appetite really messed things up! March 9, 2020, is when we were restricted from going to Maunalani to sit with Dad; my closest weigh-in to that date was on March 13th when I was 110.0 pounds with a 28.2% fat content and 47.8% water content. Which means over the course of this pandemic I have gained 16.6 pounds and increased my fat content by 7%; not good!

I forgot to mention on Wednesday that if I was to eat in at Water Drop for lunch I would have to show my vaccine card. But since I am only picking my food up to go, just have to do a temperature check when I walk in the door. Since I am following Dr. Ron's South Asian health recommendations, I am cutting down on the carbs; I am getting noodles and leaving them for The Roommates. They almost always make rice for dinner so noodles are a nice change for them.

Today I called 68 people and was able to reach 16 of them (24%). Of those 4 (25%) were vaccinated. Because of my familiarity with Hawaiʻi Island I have been assigned to the group that is doing the Hawaiʻi Island & Maui calls; everyone else is on Oʻahu calls. When we are done with the Hawaiʻi Island & Maui 1st, 2nd, & 3rd day calls we switch & help with the Oʻahu calls at whatever stage they are in. We were able to get a 2nd call in to the Day 1 Oʻahu patients & still finish by 4:30 p.m. Hulō!

I stopped at Kokua Market on the way home; I was out of cottage cheese for my late evening snack. And today they had some! If they are out of cottage cheese I get Greek yogurt, but I prefer cottage cheese. I also picked up Turkey Loaf with Mushroom Sauce and Broccoli Kale Salt Sauté.

I had leftover cauliflower rice with the shakshuka for dinner tonight. Sorry, no photo. You can tell how hungry I am when I get home by whether I stop to get a photo or not!

The Aix weather app forecast light drizzles throughout the day in Honolulu; those did not seem to materialize. For Kapaʻau, Aix forecast rain until midafternoon followed by partly cloudy skies in the afternoon and light drizzles in the evening. The local paper forecast scattered showers in the morning & isolated showers later in the day with a 50% chance of rain. In reality, the Honomū weather station recorded 0.11 inches precipitation by 7:59 a.m. and none later. For Marysville, Aix forecast 0.1 inches of rain per hour before sunset, then up to 0.3 inches per hour after dark. The traffic cam showed wet pavement in the morning but did not look to be as heavy as Aix had forecast.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 7:59 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 7:59 a.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 8:00 a.m.; wet & dreary.

Nā Koʻolau at 8:27 a.m.

The surf along the south shores is dropping but east facing shores are forecast to increase.

Hilo Bay (E) at 8:01 a.m.

Waikīkī (S) at 8:01 a.m.

Waikoloa (W) at 8:02 a.m.

There was a magnitude 4.5 earthquake northwest of San Diego, it did not generate a tsunami.

I am glad that leaders of the major faiths are coming out publicly and saying there is no religious exemption from getting the vaccine. I also like that one leader pointed out that if your objection is to the early use of fetal cell lines then you should also not be using Tylenol, ibuprofen, Pepto-Bismol, & other common over the counter remedies for the same reason. I have always wondered about the rationale for religious exemption & I have talked about my views on this before in this blog; if God created Man, why is it that some people think that He cannot create smart Men to create a vaccine in record time? Why would God also make it a sin to get something that will help keep you alive? I am reminded of the story of the man in the flood who is waiting for God to save him. SPOILER ALERT: he drowns.

There were 581 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 74,437. There were also 15 new deaths reported today; this record daily number of deaths brings the total number of deaths up to 694. Currently there are 8285 cases considered to be active. As of yesterday, there were 1,955,525 doses of vaccine administered making 66.1% of the population fully vaccinated; there are 74.6% that have received at least one dose. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 396 with a positivity rate of 7.8%. 

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Ryan!