The family of Fortunato Genobia, 89, of Waiehu Heights said on social media that the great-great-grandfather died Monday at Maui Memorial due to complications of COVID-19.

On Tuesday morning, the state Department of Health and Maui Health System, operators of Maui Memorial, confirmed the death of a 65-year-old or older man connected to the hospital outbreak. The Health Department said the man had been at the hospital since late last year.

The death raises Maui’s coronavirus total to five. A second death was reported Tuesday on Oahu involving a 65-year-old or older man, who had underlying health conditions and was hospitalized in late March. After getting better, he was discharged, but his health declined, and he died at home Monday.

The man was Oahu’s seventh fatality; the state’s total is 12.

PEARL PRUSE Tested positive after admission

Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino and Gov. David Ige offered their condolences to the victims’ families.

A Wailuku woman, who contacted The Maui News, says there is another coronavirus death not being acknowledged. The woman, who requested anonymity, said her hanai aunt, Pearl Pruse, died April 7 due to the virus cluster at the hospital.

She was in the chronic care unit at the hospital when she died, said the Wailuku woman, who was Pruse’s caregiver.

“I feel it’s wrong what happened and nobody knows,” said the caregiver, who was told by the Health Department not to discuss the death even with her aunt’s doctor.

“She was the sweetest person in the world. She was so funny. I love her so much,” the caregiver said of her aunt, who was born in 1944 and was a waitress at various establishments on Maui.

The caregiver said Pruse’s death could have been prevented; she did not have the virus when initially admitted March 14 for breathing issues. She tested negative for COVID-19 her first week at the hospital while suffering from pneumonia and rhinovirus.

Days after Pruse died, the woman got a call from the Health Department to inform her that her aunt was tested for the coronavirus a day before her death. She was told the test came back positive.

“I didn’t even know she was tested again,” the caregiver said.

The woman said she was not seeking any personal attention but wanted to inform the public about what her aunt endured. Pruse had initially gotten better after being admitted and was transferred from the ICU to the chronic care unit.

In a matter or days, hospital officials told the caregiver that Pruse needed a foster home for discharge and then hospice care.

“Our hospital administration’s decision to not practice or allow PPE (personal protective equipment) early on cost lives and endangered everyone including staff and patients. And there was a lack of transparency even to their own workers and no proper follow-up on the part of the Health Department,” the caregiver said.

The woman said face masks were not being worn by staff when her aunt was in the emergency room on March 14. She did not blame hospital staff members, but the administration.

Thanks to a nurse, she was able to speak to Pruse over the phone a few hours before she died.

“She could speak, she knew I was there,” the caregiver said of Pruse. “She could say ‘I love you.’ ”

Early Tuesday evening, state Epidemiologist Sarah Park said that “there have been four persons identified as associated with MMMC and have died.”

“Investigations are ongoing to determine whether COVID-19 infection occurred as a result of the outbreak or whether they may have had the infection related to another exposure,” she said.

When asked what the state required Maui Memorial to do in light of the cluster and now the fatality, Park said the DOH sent a letter to Maui Memorial leadership April 8 “outlining infection control measures expected to ensure the safety of health care workers and patients.

“Their infection control team has been working closely with us to rapidly respond to the outbreak and prevent further possible spread of COVID-19 related to this outbreak.”

Park said the state is working with the hospital’s infection control team to identify anybody who may be at risk. As of Tuesday, Park said more than 240 health care workers and more than 100 patients have been tested in relation to the outbreak investigation.

Hospital workers, especially nurses, have been at odds with the administration over personal face mask prohibitions and availability of personal protection equipment. The hospital initially prevented workers from wearing personal face masks when treating non-COVID-19 patients but later reversed itself.

Maui Health did not respond to questions about the recent death or updated protocols at the hospital.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Maui District Health Officer Dr. Lorrin Pang said that he knows on the “periphery what the hospital changes are, they inform me quite a bit.”

“You have to be a little sympathetic about what is going on,” Pang added.

There have been complaints from hospital health care workers about personal protection equipment being limited or even kept under lock and key.

“They were short of PPE, or they were holding on to it because they expected it to be like New York,” Pang said, referencing the thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths daily. “They were directly short or saving for the bad day”

There was a shortage of testing kits at the beginning of the pandemic as well, he noted.

“I understand where they are coming from,” Pang said. “Personally, I don’t want to speak one way or the other. In the future, we expect to be bombarded with more cases like this. You can’t just send people away.”

“Yes, this might go on quite a while,” Pang said of the hospital cluster. “We have to see when this repeat cluster will stop.”

As for the uptick in cluster cases at the hospital, Pang replied: “You want no new cases? Well then you stop testing.

“If you test more, you will find more. Of course, you want to find them even though you’d rather find nothing. . . . So you expect to find more when you test more.”

On Tuesday, in addition to the two deaths, there were two new adult cases, both from Maui, in the state. Maui’s total is now 108 cases; the state total is 586.

Honolulu remains at 385 cases; Hawaii island at 64, and Kauai at 21.

Six residents have been diagnosed out of state. Fifty-six in the state have required hospitalization and 437 have been released from isolation.

* Staff Writer Kehaulani Cerizo contributed to this report. Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.