Translator of COVID updates for deaf dies in pandemic We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss January 25, 2021 — 2.05pm Normal text size PATTY SAKAL: 1958 - 2021 Patty Sakal, an American Sign Language interpreter who translated updates about the coronavirus for deaf Hawaiians, died on Friday of complications related to COVID-19. She was 62. Sakal, who lived in Honolulu, died at Alvarado Hospital Medical Centre in San Diego, where she had gone last month to visit one of her daughters, according to Sakal’s sister, Lorna Mouton Riff. Sakal, who worked as an ASL interpreter for nearly four decades in a variety of settings, had become a mainstay in coronavirus press briefings in Hawaii, working with both the former mayor of Honolulu, Kirk Caldwell, and Governor David Ige to interpret news for the deaf community.