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The Kaiser Permanente Wailuku Clinic will continue to operate its ambulatory surgery center and provide gastroenterology services after announcing last fall that it planned to close the center and move services to Maui Memorial Medical Center. KAISER PERMANENTE photo
Kaiser Permanente will continue to operate its ambulatory surgery center and provide gastroenterology services at its Wailuku clinic, backing away from a plan to close the center and move services to Maui Memorial Medical Center.
“After additional analysis Kaiser Permanente has found a way to allow the surgery center to remain open with all current services,” Kaiser Permanente said in a statement Thursday. “This new path will require minor changes to allow for better patient flow and safety enhancements.”
The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
First photo: Wailuku’s Fanueli Fifita does an incline press with a pair of 60-pound dumbbells at the Maui Family YMCA Tuesday afternoon in Kahului. “Just trying to keep in shape during COVID,” Fifita said. New rules that went into effect on Tuesday limit business capacity to 30 percent and require gyms, yoga studios and similar fitness venues to ensure participants wear masks at all times, whether indoor or outdoor.
Second photo: Les Totah of Wailuku runs on a treadmill Tuesday at the Maui Family YMCA. Totah said a personalized training routine designed by YMCA Community Health Director Seth Abdallah helps him maintain his strength, balance and autonomy. “They saved my life,” Totah said. “They have improved my health and certainly have extended my life.” He said wearing a mask while working out was not an imposition. “The main thing we want is people to be safe.”
WAILUKU In response to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Maui County community, Maui County Councilmember Kelly Takaya King of South Maui
The Maui News
Maui County Council Member Kelly King will host a virtual town hall from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday to discuss the recent surge of COVID cases on Maui and the county’s response to the pandemic.
The webinar is open to the public and will feature the following panelists:
⢠Steve O’Neal, a former U.N. disaster response team leader and Kauai resident who will discuss Kauai County’s response and Maui’s current surge, as well as offer suggestions to reduce the spread and impact of the virus on Maui.
⢠Dr. Michael Shea, chief medical director of Maui Health, who will discuss vaccinations and updates from Maui Health and Maui Memorial Medical Center.
kcerizo@mauinews.com
Maui Health System nurses Sloan Ponte (from left), Taryn Pacheco, Kiki Quarry and Katie Talbot flex for the cameras after being four of the first frontline staffers vaccinated for COVID-19 on Wednesday morning at the hospital. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
WAILUKU Hailed as history in the making, the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine were administered Wednesday to hundreds of Maui County frontline health care workers and first responders, with many citing community service as the reason they volunteered.
Officials said 270 Maui Health System staff received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku. Another 215 police, fire and American Medical Response workers took the Moderna vaccine at University of Hawaii Maui College in Kahului.