Hawai‘i COVID-19 News Update – January 21, 2022
Aloha,
Here are the latest COVID-19 news and issues facing Hawai‘i that you need to know this week.
County mayors show strong support for adding a booster shot requirement to Hawaiʻi’s Safe Travels program.
- Earlier this month, Governor Ige announced his intent to require proof of a booster vaccination, for those eligible, as part of the Safe Travels program’s vaccine exemption. As of the last week’s update, there is no set date as the state continues to iron out the logistics for a revised program.
- Gov. Ige said, “We are working through what would be required to manually evaluate that status and looking for ways to automate the assessment of whether someone has gotten all of their vaccination shots — including their boosters.”
- Gov. Ige has yet to make an official announcement, but on Wednesday, Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi said there is a target date of February 18.
- Hawaiʻi County Mayor Mitch Roth has said he favors adding a booster to Safe Travels, as well as required pre-travel testing for all. At the same time, Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino explained he proposed updating the vaccination requirement to include booster doses earlier this month during talks with Gov. Ige.
- Mayor Victorino is implementing a similar update in his county. Starting on January 24, the COVID-19 booster shot will be a part of Maui’s Safer Outside program, requiring businesses such as bars, gyms, and restaurants to verify proof of vaccination.
Amid a shortage of testing supplies in stores, the federal government has launched a program to distribute free at-home COVID-19 test kits.
- The federal government is taking orders for its free at-home COVID-19 test kits following the official launch date on Tuesday. President Joe Biden’s administration bought one billion tests for people living in the U.S.
- Anyone living in the U.S. can order tests from COVIDtest.gov. Each household qualifies for four tests. Additionally, you can place orders via the United States Postal Service website. These orders will start shipping in late January.
- Congressman Kai Kahele believes it’s a wake-up call for counties to stock up local supply, saying, “We have record cases across the state and all of our counties, and we're behind the bar curve. We’re in a crisis now. We need as many test kits to be available to Hawai‘i's families, and we also need the state to have a strategic test pile of rapid test kits.”
- KITV reports some leaders are concerned that only four tests are allowed per residential address, given the multigenerational style of many Hawaiʻi households. Darrah Kauhane, Project Vision Hawaii executive director, said, “As you know, many of our families here in Hawai‘i live in multigenerational homes; we have many more than four people living in a household. We’d like to have people testing more frequently instead of one time basis.”
Federal funding and droves of healthcare workers are making their way to Hawaiʻi as hospitals across the state battle staffing shortages.
- The state plans to bring in an additional 400 health care workers from the mainland this coming weekend to start shifts next week. They will relieve Hawai‘i hospitals experiencing staffing shortages as nearly 2,000 health care workers statewide are currently in quarantine or isolation because of COVID-19 exposures.
- State and congressional officials announced Wednesday that Hawaiʻi would soon receive $47.9 million in federal funding in the form of a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to support hospitals and health care workers across the state.
- The FEMA grant will hire nearly 1,000 temporary medical staff, including nurses, pharmacists, and therapists. The state asked for funding to deploy 955 medical personnel for three months until April 1.
- Healthcare Association of Hawaii president and CEO Hilton Raethel said, “We have sufficient oxygen, ventilators, and PPE or personal protective equipment. Our biggest challenge continues to be the adequacy of our workforce. The rest of January will continue to be challenging for our health care workforce, and the impact of the omicron surge will extend well into February.”
Governor Ige allocates $1.6 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds to avoid further layoffs and furloughs and provide relief to critical programs.
- In a news conference this week, Gov. Ige shared how he would distribute the funds. A few highlights include $84 million to Emergency Medical Services and injury prevention, $60 million to Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, $48 million to the Hawai‘i Dept. of Public Safety to strengthen COVID response in facilities statewide, $41 million to Hawai‘i Safe Travels program, $28 million to University of Hawaiʻi and more.
- Meanwhile, Civil Beat reports that Gov. David Ige’s administration has requested tens of millions of dollars in state funding to help reshape the way visitors view Hawai‘i, in hopes that more thoughtful tourists ultimately will boost resident sentiment about tourism in the islands.
- A recent Honolulu Civil Beat “Community Voices” piece examines how Hawaiʻi can move forward from the pandemic with tourism as our key industry while expanding career field options across the islands to allow for more “good jobs.”
- The Civil Beat piece was authored by members from the Office of Economic Revitalization at the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health and the University of Hawaiʻi. They write, “Together, we can bend O‘ahu’s economy away from the 20th century and toward a more promising, regenerative, emerging economy. For the first time in recent history, we are making an intentional, tangible, significant step away from our over-reliance on tourism.”