Hawaii coronavirus patients appear less sick than at outbreak's onset, doctor says

Jul. 22--Although Hawaii has seen in recent weeks, patients appear to be less sick than those who were hospitalized at the peak of the outbreak in March.

Dr. Melinda Ashton, executive vice president and chief quality officer at Hawaii Pacific Health--parent company of Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, Pali Momi Medical Center, Straub Medical Center and Wilcox Health on Kauai--said none of the 11 COVID-19 patients--all adults--in the hospital on Tuesday needed intensive care. She added that treatments for the virus are getting better.

"We haven't seen as many of them need intensive care as the original surge. Patients are a little bit less sick it appears, or the other alternative is we have a better handle on how to help them, " Ashton said, adding that doctors have learned a lot about treatments since the start of the pandemic. "We've got a couple medications that are helpful. Around the world and certainly around the U.S., physicians have been helping each other better care for these patients."

Health officials reported 25 new confirmed coronavirus cases Tuesday, bringing the statewide total number of infections to 1, 418. The new cases include 21 on Oahu and four on Maui.

Two of the Maui cases were residents who traveled outside the state, and another small cluster of cases was associated with out-of-state "critical infrastructure " workers, exempt from the state's 14-day mandatory quarantine. Officials said they did not interact with the broader community and are now in quarantine, but did not say how many were part of the cluster.

"We expect an increased number of cases as kids go back to school and as tourists come back to the state, " Ashton said. "We're not preparing any differently than we have from the very beginning of this. These surge plans have all been in place. We haven't needed to use them, so we're ready to provide care to the patients who need it."

There are 310 active infections and 1, 084 patients now considered recovered--about 76 % of those infected. Hawaii's coronavirus death toll remains at 24 : 17 on Oahu, six on Maui and a Kauai resident who died in Arizona. Of the 108, 182 coronavirus tests conducted so far by state and clinical laboratories, 1.3 % have been positive.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii cases since the start of the outbreak, 151 have required hospitalization, including two residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. There are 46 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized with 11 in the ICU and six on ventilators, according to Lt. Gov. Josh Green. A spokesman for The Queen's Medical Center, one of the state's largest hospital systems, wouldn't disclose how many coronavirus patients were currently hospitalized, citing privacy laws, and did not immediately respond to questions about their status.

"The hope is that the community responds as they did early in the pandemic and is really careful about wearing masks and physical distancing and all of these other things that we know work to help reduce the spread of the virus, " Ashton said. "We're very much aware that there's a risk that the cases will increase, but we need to balance that risk with the definite need to open up the economy. We believe we are well prepared to deal with whatever cases come our way. We have a better idea now of what to expect."

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