Dr. Lorrin Pang, state Department of Health Maui District officer, speaks during a news conference on a COVID-19 cluster at a Maui hospital.

Mayor Michael Victorino this morning said a “cluster” of about 15 employees have COVID-19 at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

By midday, state health officials reported Maui County’s second COVID-19 related death, Hawaii’s sixth, and 25 new cases for the state, bringing its total to 435.

The hospital cluster comes on the heels of a March 31 announcement from Kaiser-affiliated Maui Health System that finally allowed employees and providers to wear their own personal masks in work settings when treating non-COVID-19 patients following complaints from staff about hospital policies.

Victorino during a news conference this morning said that Maui Health System and state Department of Health officials are working on the case, workers are self-isolating and increased testing will be done.

“We are upping and increasing the amount of testing, in other words, we will be looking very closely on the cluster that has formed and what to do there,” Victorino said.

He said the governor has assured the county of fast test results.

“We also are working very closely with Maui Health System, the State Department of Health and others to accelerate testing for additional hospital workers this afternoon,” Victorino said. “Gov. David Ige has assured me that he will do everything he can to expedite test results.”

Victorino said in a news release that employees were immediately sent home to self-isolate and there are plans to transport workers to a quarantine site away from families.

Michael Rembis, Maui Health System CEO, said that as with other hospital employees that have tested positive, workers are furloughed.

“As soon as they showed symptoms, they were immediately furloughed and we removed them from the workplace,” Rembis said. “They were not positive at the time, we believe, when they were working. When anyone shows symptoms, we are furloughing them.”

Dr. Lorrin Pang, state Department of Health Maui District officer, said that infections are to be expected among first responders, especially those in the hospitals.

Recently, Maui Memorial health care providers have complained that they’ve been discouraged from wearing masks around the hospital.

Aaron Bear, an ICU nurse at Maui Memorial for 11 years, said that staff were told they could not wear regular surgical masks when dealing with situations outside of their set up COVID-19 unit.

Bear said that the reasoning was that if a person were wearing a mask, they should be at home. Health officials have told the general public that they should only wear masks if they are sick to prevent transmission. But many nurses like Bear prefer to wear masks because they work in a hospital setting where anyone can unknowingly transmit disease.

On March 31, Maui Health said that employees can use their own masks while caring for non-COVID-19 patients and/or while in clinical areas where masks are not required, as well as in nonclinical areas and during encounters with non-COVID-19 patients. Homemade masks donated by the community also will be made available for clinician and staff usage, while supplies last.

Victorino this morning said that 6,000 surgical masks came in Tuesday to be donated to the hospital.

Maui Health includes Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital, Lanai Community Hospital and associated clinics.