Hawaii hospitals say they are seeing an increase in patients admitted with COVID- 19 but have an adequate availability of beds for now.

Still, they say they’re monitoring the situation closely and are urging the public to get vaccinated, especially after the state Department of Health announced Friday that the number of new cases had surged to a record high of 622.

“We had a shocking number of cases today,” said Dr. Melinda Ashton, chief quality officer at Hawaii Pacific Health, which had 17 COVID- 19 patients in its four hospitals as of 5:30 p.m. Friday. “We do have to remember we all need to be careful and that the need to limit or shut down activities is dependant on our ability to take care of those who get sick.”

Ashton and spokespersons for The Queen’s Health Systems and Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua Medical Center said Friday they were seeing an increase in patients admitted with COVID-19 but at present have enough available hospital beds.

“We have 45 COVID cases in our hospitals systemwide right now, as we speak, including 40 in Queen’s Medical Center, which has a total 575 beds,” said Jason Chang, chief operating officer of The Queen’s Health Systems and president of The Queen’s Medical Center. Chang said that hospitalized patients were “mostly unvaccinated” cases.

“Last summer we had about 100 at the max” on any given day, he said.

During last summer’s peak “we were quadruple where we are now in terms of hospital admissions,” Ashton said.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green said the COVID-19 numbers of the past three days “are harrowing” and that he is very concerned. The three-day average of 314 is in line with the peak count last year of 318 on Aug. 26.

The numbers of the past three days were part of a Fourth of July spike that peaked after 40 days, “so in the next 10 days, by about Aug. 14, we might see the numbers start to go down,” Green said. “We’re in better shape than last July because we’re two-thirds vaccinated,” but then again, the delta variant, which is causing the rise in cases, is more contagious.

“We have to remain alert, get vaccinated and wear masks,” Green said, “because if the numbers remain as high, there’s no doubt the governor and county mayors will lower their tiers,” restricting public gatherings.

The main concern and determinant of restrictions is hospital capacity, he said.

On Friday there were 117 hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, up from 114 Thursday, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.

Having learned from last year’s experiences, Chang and Ashton said their hospital systems can better plan and prepare for precautions they might need to take if they need more beds, such as the possibility of cutting down on elective inpatient surgeries.

“We are seeing an increase of patients with COVID-19 but currently maintain adequate ICU capacity,” said Dr. Zamir Moen, professional chief of staff at Kaiser Permanente. “Kaiser Permanente is prepared for another surge of COVID-19 patients with sufficient levels of PPE (personal protective equipment) and medical equipment, including ventilators.”

As an added precaution, Moen said Kaiser has updated its visitor policy effective Monday, restricting visitors to one per patient at all facilities.

The good news, Green said, was that with 60% of Hawaii’s population vaccinated and 66.7% having initiated vaccinations, “we’ve changed, hopefully, the denominator of people who end up in the hospital, because vaccinations protect against severe disease requiring hospitalization.”

Most cases are now among younger people, he added, because they’re less likely to be vaccinated but get less sick and are unlikely to die.

Of 2,653 active cases in Hawaii as of Friday, Green said 25% are children, of whom he would expect only 1% would have more symptoms meriting hospitalization. Of the adults, 7%, or 140 people, likely will need hospitalization, he said.

As a father and doctor, he said, he has serious concerns about schools.

“We’ll need DOH and DOE (Department of Education) to be on top of any cases, and every child and adult will have to wear masks,” Green said. “If there are school breakouts, they’ll have to quickly isolate cases and start tracking contacts.”

While he and his wife are sending their 10-year-old son to public school, which starts next week, “we have to be understanding and respectful of all parents’ decisions,” Green said.

He added he was hopeful because he expects that the Food and Drug Administration soon will approve the vaccines “and more people will get them,” and that the FDA is also on track to approve vaccines for ages 5-11.