More cases
New restrictions set to start today
A week after Roselani Place said one staff member was positive with COVID-19, the Kahului senior living facility reported two additional employees have tested positive.
All three staff are isolating at home and more than 100 tests have been administered, according to a news release from the management company Monday.
The management company said 106 PCR and rapid antigen tests on staff and residents have been completed since Jan. 11. With the three positive cases, the positivity rate is 2.7 percent.
Recent PCR testing done Thursday shows that 10 tests are pending, however all rapid tests reflect presumptive negative results, according to Roselani Place.
On Jan. 11, the company said one staff member tested positive for COVID-19 and was asymptomatic and isolating at home.
On Thursday, the senior living facility, with the help of Maui District Health Office’s Dr. Lorrin Pang and Heidi Taogoshi, held its first on-site vaccination clinic where 58 residents received Moderna doses.
Meanwhile, new county rules aimed at slowing a spike in COVID-19 cases take effect today that restrict business capacity to 30 percent, while gyms and certain physical activities have tighter face mask rules. Some new county mask rules are now more stringent than recent statewide rules.
The latest changes require that retailers with a maximum capacity of 50 or more people must reduce to 30 percent occupancy.
While small retailers with maximum capacities of 50 people or fewer are also subject to the 30 percent restriction, their occupancy limit will be determined by taking the total interior square footage of retail space, dividing it by 36 square feet (a 6-foot buffer per person) and multiplying by 30 percent.
A building that is 4,000 square feet would have a maximum capacity of 34 people, for example. Retailers are allowed to round up to whole numbers to meet occupancy requirements.
Tighter mask rules require gyms, yoga studios and similar fitness venues to ensure all participants wear face masks at all times, whether indoor or outdoor.
Also, face coverings are required on hiking trails and in parks — unless people are “actively engaged in strenuous outdoor physical activity” and able to physically distance.
County officials said face masks must be worn while walking to and from the beach or pool, and can only be removed once a person is stationary and 6 feet away from nonhousehold members.
Maui County has amended its mask requirements multiple times. Earlier iterations banned neck gaiters and a later amendment restored them, so long as cloth could be double-layered. Also, strenuous outdoor exercise was exempt from mask wearing. Now, if associated with a gym or fitness studio, even if outdoors, masks must be worn.
Last fall, county mayors and other government leaders had lobbied Gov. David Ige for consistent statewide mask rules. In November, he issued an emergency proclamation that said face coverings were required in public settings. The exemptions include: if an individual is outdoors and keeping 6 feet away from people outside their household; children younger than 5; while working at a desk or work station and not actively engaged with others provided that the work station is distanced by at least 6 feet; while eating, drinking or smoking; and where medical conditions or disabilities exist, among others.