Positive Test for COVID-19 at Westin Nanea on Maui

[Maui Fan]

This evening, there was the following letter slipped under our door here at the Westin Nanea.

Dear Westin Nanea Ocean Villas Owners and Guests:

We wish to inform you that we were recently notified by public health authorities that a guest currently staying at the Westin Nanea Ocean Villas has tested positive for COVID-19.

The resort management team is coordinating with our corporate and regional resources and are continuing enhanced cleaning protocols/procedures in specific common areas where the guest is known to have been present during his/her stay. This will also include specific cleaning protocols for the villa that the guest is currently occupying once the guest is able to check out of the resort. At this time, at the direction of the public health authorities, the guest is self-isolating.

We are also working closely with local health authorities and will follow all requirements that they deem appropriate.

The health and safety of our guests and associates is our top priority. The daily health and safety measures that are already in place at our resorts are designed to address a broad spectrum of viruses, including COVID-19. Those health and safety measures extend from handwashing hygiene and cleaning product specifications, to villa and common area cleaning procedures.

However, in response to the spread of COVID-19, our resort previously increased, and has continued, with enhanced cleaning protocols for high frequency guest touchpoints as well as the following public areas, where applicable:

• Public Restrooms
• Lobby
• Fitness Center & Locker Rooms
• Activities/Kids Club
• Shuttle Busses
• Other key property guest areas

Our associates are also expected to follow the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of diseases.

If you have any questions regarding the steps that the management team is taking in response to this incident, please contact the resort operator and ask for the Manager on Duty.

Sincerely,

Chris Rabang
General Manager

After inquiring, we were told that the guest felt ill shortly after arrival and the only common area they had visited was the lobby area. They two associates that encountered the individual have been placed in quarantine for 14 days. They have done extensive cleaning of the associated areas. They understandably did not provide the building number that the individual is staying in, which I do agree with. When asked if they had visited the pool area or any other common areas, we were assured that the guest had only visited the lobby. There has been no news about this anywhere. They appear to be a traveler from somewhere else and not a case of community spread.

 

[andysnovel]

Folks should not be traveling at this time, not worth it.

 

[DannyTS]

So many people are losing their jobs in this panic in part because some irresponsible individuals walk around sick like nothing happened. I understand that people with no symptoms may still carry the virus as it is always the case. I do not understand how those that have any symptoms carry on with what they were planning on doing.

With that being said I hope the world will come back to more normal times sooner rather than later. After a month or two we will see that the number of cases is the same or higher even after locking down the whole country. What do we do then? The surge can still start at that moment and all we have managed to do is crash the economy, which will make the global health care system poorer and probably kill more people than the virus itself.

Widely accessible and fast testings with rigorous procedures after that plus isolating the most vulnerable is the answer to me, not keeping everyone at home indefinitely.

 

[CynL]

The whole idea to have us, the U.S., keep going without a surge, is still a numbers game.

Did you see the news item/video of the woman in CO that just returned from 3 days in Hawaii, began to get a sore throat and runny nose just before getting on the plane to return home? She later had some nausea, went to the Dr and tested neg. for the flu. It was another couple days until she had pneumonia and went to the ER. THEN, she was tested for Covid-19 and tested positive. I watched trying to understand the symptoms...she hadn’t been anywhere prior to going to Hawaii.

Then I wonder, is it better if someone who thought she was healthy, stays home? Will our economy be better if we all did that? The darn ripple effect is insane!

Our plan to avoid the surge means that we’ll be in this current mode longer than if we had a surge. It should save lives because we never overtax the health system.

Oh, and I read that people can be carriers and exhibit no symptoms??? Yikes! Maybe the only people to travel should’ve be people who’ve already had it?

I’m also wondering if anticipated warmer weather will help kill the virus...it’s already warm in HI.

I got an email yesterday from one of our high-end restaurants promoting take out and delivery. They had take out before, but now they’ve revamped their menu to include a French dip sandwich and even a hamburger with fries! They still have their $50-$70 steaks—for take-out too. I like that they are working to adapt and stay afloat. I think it will be work for each of us to keep these businesses afloat. Is avoiding travel 100% a good/better solution for the travel industry? For individuals?

 

[okwiater]

The problem is the cost of doing nothing vs. doing something vs. doing everything are not known. Neither are the benefits. No one will be able to do a proper cost-benefit analysis until maybe after it's over. There are lots of experts making their best guesses, but people don't know enough to know for sure what the right thing to do is. We are just picking something and hoping it's not worse than picking nothing.

 

[Stljayhawk]

We are at the south villas in Kaanapali now. Received almost same letter last night. Our letter made it sound like she stayed here. Or were there 2 different cases?

 

[wtrjock]

The Nanea letter says the person is still there. The South letter says the person left the resort. Sounds like 2 different cases.

 

[controller1]

The Nanea letter says the person is still there. The South letter says the person left the resort. Sounds like 2 different cases.

It could certainly be the same case as in the person first stayed at WKORV and then moved to Nanea. We've certainly moved resorts in Maui several times.

 

[Vacation4us]

I just called and spoke with someone at the front desk at WKORV. We stayed there last week and checked out on Sunday (3/15) before returning home to the SF Bay Area. She confirmed the person at Nanea is the same person that also stayed at WKORV. She was not willing to give more details, such as when exactly did the infected person stay and checkout of WKORV.