Mayor Has No Plans to Close Miloliʻi Fishing Village After Report of COVID-19 Cluster

Mayor Harry Kim will not close the Miloliʻi Fishing Village in South Kona despite requests from Hawai‘i Island’s delegation to do so after reports of a COVID-19 cluster in the area.

Ten people were diagnosed with the virus this week after attending a large gathering in Miloliʻi, Kim confirmed Thursday. Six or seven of those individuals who attended the party were from the Puna area.

After hearing reports of the cluster in Miloliʻi, Sen. Kai Kahele sent a letter to Kim’s office, signed by all members of Hawai‘i County’s lawmakers, requesting the village be closed to the public.

“With the upcoming Labor Day weekend, we strongly believe an entry control point be immediately established so that village access is limited to residents only,” the letter states.

The letter goes on to indicate the Miloliʻi Fishing Village community is home to approximately 300 residents, with many multigenerational households and “because they do not have anywhere else to go, COVID-19 has the potential to spread rapidly to other members in the home.”

At this time, Kim told Big Island Now on Thursday, he doesn’t feel the need to lock down Kona or Hilo, adding all COVID-19 positive individuals from the gathering are in quarantine and contact tracing is ongoing. He hopes to get a testing site open in the fishing village this weekend.

As of Thursday, Hawaii County has 219 active cases with 17 new coronavirus cases — 11 in Hilo, two in Captain Cook, two in Kea‘au and two Papaikou. There are currently five deaths reported on the Big Island, all veterans who resided in the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home.