No new cases at Life Care Center

Kelsey Walling/Tribune-Herald The Life Care Center in Hilo on Tuesday.
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All residents and staff at Hale Anuenue Restorative Care Center have tested negative for COVID-19 during the facility’s last round of testing, Executive Director Gail Kahookele said Tuesday.

An employee had tested positive on Aug. 27 and quarantined for two weeks before returning to work, and a contractor tested positive during the first round of facility-wide testing on Sept. 4.

One resident also tested positive earlier this month but was no longer isolated as of last week.

No additional cases of the virus were reported at Life Care Center of Hilo, according to an update to the facility’s website on Tuesday.

Six residents and four employees have so far tested positive for COVID-19. One resident and two employees have fully recovered.

All COVID-positive patients remain in the facility and are receiving care, and none have been hospitalized, according to the update from Executive Director Mark Mann. Testing of residents and staff was completed Sunday and Monday, respectively.

Weekly testing will continue until further notice, and residents are monitored multiple times day and night for symptoms.

“We love our residents and our determination to serve them has not wavered since the beginning of the pandemic in March,” Mann wrote. “We take what we are doing seriously, and we are spending our time on the front lines with who matters most — our residents.”

No additional cases have been reported Tuesday at Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home, and results from the last round of resident and staff testing were negative, according to an update from Hilo Medical Center.

Seventy-one residents and 35 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, and 26 residents have died due to the virus since late August.

According to HMC, there currently are 49 residents at the Hilo veterans home.

Eight residents are receiving care in the facility’s COVID-designated area, and one resident is hospitalized at HMC. Thirty-six residents and 30 employees have recovered.

The state Department of Health reported three new COVID-19 cases on the Big Island Tuesday, bring the island’s total case count to 703 since the start of the pandemic.

Eleven COVID-positive patients were hospitalized at Hilo Medical Center as of Tuesday afternoon, including three in the hospital’s intensive care unit, seven in the COVID unit and one in its Extended Care Facility.