HONOLULU — Hawaii’s surging COVID-19 cases have overwhelmed the state’s contact tracing efforts.
Hawaii News Now reported Thursday the Department of Health recently expanded its contact tracing team to 313 people from 269, but still struggles to keep up with the hundreds of people newly infected each day.
In the middle of July, department data showed contact tracers were able to reach about 90% of people who were infected. The latest data for the first week of August showed they were only able to reach 62%.
“One thing we’re seeing is there are a lot more people not picking up the phone,” said Dr. Sarah Kemble, the Hawaii state epidemiologist. “That aside, we are seeing a record number of case counts in the state. Of course, that is a challenge to try to reach everyone.”
On Friday, Hawaii reported a seven-day average of 661 new daily cases statewide. That’s down from a peak of 717 earlier in the week but sharply higher than 128 one month ago.
Hawaii’s COVID-19 cases have jumped with the spread of the more transmissible delta variant of the virus.