Hawai‘i COVID-19 News Update – August 20, 2021
Aloha,
Here’s the latest COVID-19 news and issues facing Hawai‘i that you need to know this week. First, new data from the Department of Health indicates that the Delta variant now accounts for 93% of all COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i.
Amid the COVID-19 surge, ICU beds are filling up, triage tents are in place, and hospitals are calling in nursing reinforcements from the mainland.
- Queen’s Health Systems says there are no available intensive care beds, and the hospital has started canceling elective surgeries. Straub’s intensive care facilities are currently operating beyond their capacity at 125% and are at stage five of a seven-stage protocol modeled off of military disaster planning.
- To help with the ongoing COVID-19 case surge, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health reports that more than 500 out-of-state healthcare professionals will be deployed to 19 hospitals statewide. The first wave of workers deployed to Hilo and Kona this week, and the remaining workers are expected to arrive over the next three weeks.
- The rapid rise in cases has also begun to overwhelm the state’s contact tracing efforts, with tracers unable to keep up with the triple-digit daily case count. In July, only 67% of cases were successfully contacted in one day, 17% in two days, 11% in three to five days and 5% in six or more days.
- Lt. Gov. Green said that he’s encouraged that Hawaiʻi’s test positivity rate is plateauing around 7.5% and not rising to the double digits like many other states on the mainland.
- However, there’s a growing concern about the ‘silent’ cases that are undetected with no symptoms or tests. Lt. Gov. Green said, “What’s happening now is we are confirming an average of about 600 cases a day. I’ll be honest with you. I think that probably means there are about 3,000 cases a day that are occurring statewide.”
- Monique Chyba, UH mathematics professor with Hawaiʻi Pandemic Applied Modeling (HiPAM), said, “We are estimating up to 15,000 active cases, so 2 to 3 times what is actually being reported,” regarding silent and undetected cases in Hawaiʻi.
State leaders are discussing reinstating pre-travel testing requirements and other measures as Hawai‘i continues to log high case counts.
- KITV reports that the Governor and County Mayors are evaluating changes like this to the Safe Travels program, along with new enforcement plans for people who violate COVID-19 rules and a possible statewide curfew.
- Hawaiʻi County Mayor Mitch Roth said, “Nobody wants to get back to a place where we're closing down and putting people's life and liberty at stake on their financial. But that's a possibility because we want to keep people safe and healthy."
- Meanwhile, professionally planned events are allowed as long as event organizers submit mitigation plans to the counties and comply with more strict rules for indoor events than outdoor events. According to Civil Beat, there’s no explicit limit on how many people can attend large events.
- Gathering plans are posted to the city’s website every Tuesday and Friday. As of last Friday, more than 700 pages of plans were posted for events, with the number of attendees ranging from dozens to 4,000 people.
- Hawaiʻi News Now reported that the state identified two recent COVID-19 clusters that resulted from approved events. According to the report, 23 cases resulted from an indoor concert at a bar and an additional 12 cases were linked to a wedding reception.
Public sentiment towards the state’s leading industry is strained, but a political analyst believes tourism is here to stay.
- Neal Milner, a former political science professor at the University of Hawaiʻi, wrote a commentary piece in Civil Beat encouraging the public to recognize that tourism isn’t going away anytime soon and try to find a way to deal with it.
- Milner opines, “All the anger about hordes of unruly tourists misses the point, which is this: Hawai‘i will be the same type of tourist economy it is now, probably indefinitely.”
- Travel writer Clint Henderson says that he’s hesitant to return to Hawaiʻi anytime soon, writing, “With the surge in coronavirus cases, escalating prices, crowds and the possibility of new restrictions, I’m going to hold off on booking any more trips for now. No doubt many Native Hawaiians – and Hawai‘i residents – are hoping more tourists make a similar decision.”
As government officials and employers impose vaccination mandates, some Hawai‘i businesses are considering vaccine requirements for customers; schools are also looking at COVID safety measures.
- Civil Beat reports business executives in Hawai‘i are discussing the sorts of mandates already in place in New York and San Francisco, including vaccine requirements for establishments like restaurants and gyms.
- Meanwhile, the debate over whether or not the state can mandate employees to get the vaccine has sparked a 60-page lawsuit from first responders, including firefighters, paramedics and police. The lawsuit details their concerns regarding the mandate, citing freedom to choose.
- As college students head back to school, most local universities are requiring students to be fully vaccinated by the start of classes, including the University of Hawaiʻi and Chaminade University. Those who are not fully vaccinated face weekly testing in order to attend in-person classes.
- However, many parents and teachers are still concerned about the impact of the pandemic on public schools, criticizing Hawaiʻi’s Department of Education for its inadequate efforts to protect students.
Mahalo nui loa,
Your BG Team