Hawai‘i COVID-19 News Update – January 14, 2022
Aloha,
Here are the latest COVID-19 news and issues facing Hawai‘i that you need to know this week.
Gov. David Ige hints he will share a new requirement for Hawaiʻi’s Safe Travels Program soon.
- Gov. Ige announced that the state is considering changing the definition of "fully vaccinated" to require a booster shot, which would affect eligibility for the Safe Travels Program.
- Currently, Hawai‘i has one of the lowest booster vaccination rates in the nation, ranking 50th out of 51 states and the District of Columbia, with just over 18 percent who have received the third shot.
- The governor says an official change to Safe Travels is weeks away, and the announcement will be made with ample notice. In the meantime, he is in talks with county mayors about recommending boosters for access to restaurants and events.
- During an interview on Monday, Gov. Ige stood by his decision to allow county mayors to determine Covid restrictions. He added that he'd step in and issue a statewide order if necessary but noted that hospitalizations lagged behind high case counts.
Experts anticipate many Hawai‘i families will soon find themselves worse off than they were before the pandemic, but the magnitude of the impact and what population will be affected are still unclear.
- While Hawai‘i received approximately $8 billion in federal funds to help individuals and families during the pandemic, creating an illusion of a safe cushion for many, a recent update predicts a 59% increase in households with ALICE (asset limited, income constrained, employed) income or below.
- Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization, says, “We're not going to be back where we would have been before the pandemic, and that's pretty lousy for a large chunk of the population.”
- Economists and community leaders are working to gather data to show the pandemic’s impact on some of Hawai‘i's most vulnerable populations, as they aim to enable policymakers to target state money toward the most critical problems.
- The task to assess the economic impact of the pandemic is challenging given the lack of accessibility to real-time data and the influx of federal funding that caused an aberration in the statistics.
Hawaiʻi hospitals struggle with staffing shortages and rising hospitalizations as omicron presents a new set of challenges.
- The Queen’s Medical Center-West Oahu has declared an internal state of emergency as admissions outpace the number of available beds and face rising hospitalizations and critical staffing shortages. The Queen’s Medical Center–Punchbowl has also declared an internal state of emergency due to a staffing shortage.
- Severe staffing shortages at Hawai‘i's hospitals are beginning to affect patient care as overwhelmed staff members are forced to offer crisis-level care, including prioritizing patients with the most critical needs and abandoning some protocols.
- An estimated 250 to 260 contracted health care workers from the mainland are expected to arrive in Hawai‘i this weekend to help care for COVID-19 patients. This is the first wave of a pending process to bring more than 900 health personnel to Hawaiʻi with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds.
The surge in COVID cases has increased demand for testing supplies, resulting in a shortage of at-home tests and long lines at testing sites.
- Amid the COVID-19 surge, there is a shortage of at-home testing kits, and some predict that the nationwide scarcity of home tests may not ease up until March or April.
- Yesterday, President Biden announced that the administration would double its purchase of home tests for an additional 500 million tests to give out for free. However, the federal government's effort could compete with others seeking tests.
- Starting on Jan. 19, the website COVIDTests.gov will provide tests at no cost, including no shipping fee, the White House announced today. Supplies will be limited to just four free tests per home.
Mahalo nui loa,
Your BG Team