Hospital operator disputes ties to two recent cases

Maui Health: Lanai, Maui Medical cases are not verified

Maui Health System is disputing whether two recent COVID-19 cases are linked to the Maui Memorial Medical Center outbreak, despite local and state officials saying they are.

The cases involve a Lanai resident, who had been hospitalized for some time, and a Maui Medical Group employee, who had been working at the hospital.

When asked Wednesday by The Maui News if he could confirm that the two cases were linked to the Maui Memorial outbreak, state Health Director Dr. Bruce Anderson replied: "We assume they are."

"One of our more recent cases was an employee at the medical center," he added. "That was done after the changes were made at the hospital, which is requiring them now to go back and reevaluate their training programs and so forth."

DOH said Tuesday that it is recommending that the hospital repeat in-service training for staff on proper personal protective equipment use and other protective measures.

Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino on Tuesday linked the Lanai resident, who had been hospitalized at Maui Memorial, to the hospital outbreak. The Health Department still reports no cases on Lanai.

However, Tracy Dallarda, spokeswoman for hospital operator Maui Health, says both cases cannot be confirmed as linked to the Maui Memorial outbreak.

"I read the mayor's statement about the Lanai patient being part of the cluster," she wrote in a text to The Maui News on Wednesday. "That has not been verified, and it is not a correct statement."

She maintained her position Wednesday afternoon after Anderson made his comments.

"We are actively continuing our contact tracing and working collaboratively with the Department of Health and have not verified that the Maui Medical Group provider nor the Lanai patient were part of the original outbreak," Dallarda said in an email.

"It is important that we conduct contact tracing to learn for certain the source of any positive COVID-19 test," she added.

State health officials have reported that the original outbreak or "cluster," which began in the middle of March, included 15 staff and eight patients.

Cases now tied to the outbreak have swelled to 59 -- 38 staff and 21 patients -- as of Tuesday, the state Department of Health reported Wednesday.

"DOH is continuing to monitor this cluster," a news release said.

Kaiser-affiliated Maui Health runs Maui Memorial, along with Kula Hospital, Lanai Community Hospital and associated clinics.

In other coronavirus related developments, four new cases of the virus -- three Oahu adults and one Hawaii resident diagnosed outside of the state -- were reported Wednesday by DOH. This brings Hawaii's total to 613 cases since Feb. 28.

Of those, 321 cases are travel-related, 236 are community-associated and 56 have unknown risk factors for contracting the illness.

Maui County has 115 confirmed cases; two of the cases are on Molokai.

Statewide fatalities remained at 16 -- 11 on Oahu and five on Maui.

As of Wednesday, 516 people have been released from isolation.

* Colleen Uechi contributed to this report. Kehaulani Cerizo can be reached at kcerizo@mauinews.com.