The state Department of Health reported that it is investigating 44 COVID-19 clusters in Maui County, the most of any county in the state over the past 14 days.

The latest cluster report released Thursday showed the 44 clusters amounted to 461 COVID-19 cases in Maui County, though some cases are no longer active.

In comparison, Honolulu City and County had 18 clusters associated with 480 cases. Kauai County had seven clusters totaling 137 cases, with the bulk coming from the jail where there have been 87 cases. Hawaii County had one cluster at its jail with 296 cases.

The DOH said the number of COVID-19 clusters continues to increase with the surge in case counts across the state driven by the highly transmissible delta variant.

According to the State Laboratory Division, the delta variant now makes up virtually all sequenced samples in Hawaii, the DOH said in a news release Thursday. The division has been conducting whole genome sequencing of the virus since June 2020 and now examines 50 to 100 specimens a week to find variants in a timely manner. The delta variant was first identified in Hawaii in June of this year.

On Thursday, the DOH identified 70 clusters in the state with a total of 1,374 cases.

In Maui County, the the latest outbreak at the Maui Community Correctional Center cluster has totaled 122 cases so far, though most have recovered and only 19 cases were active as of Thursday, according to Department of Public Safety data.

Maui County also had 10 clusters in educational settings for 92 cases, as the state public school system wrestles with hundreds of new cases a week amid a return to in-person classes.

There were two clusters among food suppliers in the county for 24 cases and eight clusters among restaurants for 31 cases.

The construction and industrial sector had three clusters for 24 cases, while other occupational settings had one cluster for five cases, and the travel, lodging and tourism industry had 12 clusters for 90 cases.

Seven clusters for 73 cases were reported in “other” categories.

Clusters investigated on Oahu involved food service workers and staff at restaurants. The DOH noted that with the highly transmissible delta variant and food industry staff working in tight spaces often with poor ventilation, the risks are higher in acquiring COVID.

In one case, 12 fully vaccinated food service employees sang together at a karaoke bar, which is a high-risk activity for spreading COVID-19, the DOH said. Seven tested positive for the virus. No masks were worn by the employees and no social distancing was practiced.

Another cluster of seven cases arose on Oahu when a food supplier who had the virus dropped off a delivery at the restaurant and infected the workers.

There were also two clusters investigated from July to August associated with a large restaurant chain on Oahu. One restaurant reported 24 of 29 exposed employees testing positive. Another restaurant reported that 12 of 24 employees exposed tested positive.

Both restaurants are in high-risk places, with one in a tourist area and the other in a community with low vaccination rates. The employer reported low vaccination rates among staff at both locations.

The Health Department said employers should encourage all workers to get vaccinated and provide them with incentives.

Merriman’s Hawaii, which has four restaurants across the state including in Kapalua, is one of the earlier businesses in Hawaii to mandate that its staff be fully vaccinated.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.