(AP) — Hawaiʻi’s surging COVID-19 cases have overwhelmed the state’s contact tracing efforts. Hawaiʻi News Now reports 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%. On Friday, Hawaiʻi had a seven-day average of 661 new daily cases statewide, up from 128 one month ago.
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