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Maunalani Nursing Center halts visitation after vaccinated resident contracts COVID-19

Maunalani Nursing and Rehabilitation Center announced Saturday it has suspended family visitation and new admissions after a patient who had received two doses of the Moderna vaccine in January and February tested positive for COVID-19 after recently being admitted to facility.

The individual, who was admitted from a hospital, had a negative COVID-19 test result 72 hours before arriving at the 110-bed, skilled-nursing facility, located on Wilhelmina Rise, as required to go into its Observation Unit, according to a statement.

Standard testing on Day 3 after admission showed a positive test result. There are no other residents or staff with coronavirus-related symptoms.

Maunalani said all residents and staff will be tested on Monday, and until then family visits and new admissions have been put on hold.

The facility reported that 85% of residents and 93% of staff have been vaccinated.

A handful of other fully vaccinated Hawaii residents have contracted COVID-19, though health officials said the vaccines appear to have prevented serious illness.

Health officials have stressed that being vaccinated for COVID-19 does not guarantee that a person will not contract the coronavirus.

Also Saturday, the Department of Health reported three new coronavirus-related deaths — two on Maui and one on Oahu — and 113 new infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 462 fatalities and 29,306 cases.

The new cases include 60 on Oahu, 30 on Maui, 14 on Hawaii island, one on Kauai and eight Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, according to health officials. As a result of updated information, one Oahu case was removed from the counts.

The latest statistics reflect new infections reported to the department Thursday.

The DOH also said there were 1,052 active cases in Hawaii, an increase of 42 from the previous tally. Oahu has 606 active cases, Maui has 327, Hawaii island has 108, Molokai has six, Kauai has three and Lanai has two.

A total of 1,975 COVID-19 patients required hospitalization, with two new hospitalizations reported Saturday. A total of 39 coronavirus patients were in hospitals statewide as of Thursday morning, with seven in intensive care units and four on ventilators.

In its weekly report, the Department of Education announced 27 new COVID cases among students, staff and service providers for the week ending Friday. The cases include three employees and a student in the Campbell-Kapolei complex; two students and two employees in the Baldwin-Kekau­like-Maui complex; three students in the Farrington-Kaiser-Kalani complex, two from the same household; three students from one household in the Castle-Kahuku complex; an employee and a service provider in the Aiea-Moanalua-Radford complex; two students and a service provider in the Leilehua-Mililani- Waialua complex; one employee each in the Pearl City-Waipahu and Honokaa- Kealakehe-Kohala-Kona­waena complexes; a student in the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa complex; and a service provider for four Oahu complexes who had no close contact to others. Four other cases involved students who had not recently been in school.

All told, the DOE reported 594 COVID-19 infections since June 26.

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