Hawai‘i COVID-19 News Update – January 29, 2021
Aloha,
Here’s the latest COVID-19 news and issues facing Hawai‘i that you need to know this week.
In his State of the State Address, Governor Ige warns the government will have to “tighten its belt” but offers little concrete details on how Hawai‘i will recover from the pandemic.
- Ige vowed to advance work to diversify Hawai‘i’s economy and suggested a shift to a digital economy to pave the path to economic resilience. Read the full text of Governor Ige’s State of the State Address here.
- Pacific Business News Editor Kam Napier writes in his latest editorial that the Hawai‘i 2.0 approach and recent concrete actions to defund the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority reveal that “the real message is: Covid or no Covid, policymakers are taking this opportunity to kill tourism.”
- Hawaiʻi News Now reports the governor notably did not address “how he plans to speed up vaccine distribution, reopen tourism, or get people back to work.”
- In subsequent press conferences, Gov. Ige noted that he would be introducing more than 200 proposals to the Legislature.
- Meanwhile, Civil Beat reports Hawai‘i has the lowest COVID-19 infection and death rates in the nation. According to DOH, this week, there was an average of 106 daily new cases accounting for a 2.5% positivity rate.
A new study finds Hawai‘i’s unemployment rate recovery is the worst in the nation, and the state tied with Nevada for the highest unemployment rate in December.
- The WalletHub study also found that states less dependent on tourism like South Dakota and Nebraska recovered more quickly than Hawai‘i, California and others who continue to struggle.
- Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization, told the Honolulu Star Advertiser that Hawai‘i “has likely seen the end of significant improvement in the labor market for the next several months.”
- UHERO also notes that the state’s economy has recovered 42% from pandemic lows experienced during the COVID-19 shutdowns in April and May of 2020.
- After weeks, thousands of unemployed Hawai‘i residents are still waiting to receive benefits from a federal jobless benefits extension program, and the state Labor Department has no definitive timeline on when folks will receive aid.
- From the pandemic’s start to January 8, the Labor Department estimates more than 575,000 claims were filed. The office fields 2,100 daily calls on average.
Hawai‘i visitor arrivals plummeted 73.8% to 2.7 million in 2020 compared to the 2019 record-breaking totals of 10.4 million, according to the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority.
- Hawaiian Airlines released its financial report this week reporting total revenue declined 79% and capacity dropped 72% compared to the same quarter last year. However, the airline is optimistic and plans to launch new routes to Austin, Texas, Orlando, Florida, and Ontario, California, in a few months.
- “2021 is gonna’ be a year of rebound,” said Brent Overbeek, Hawaiian Airlines Senior Vice President of Network Planning and Revenue Management.
- Pacific Business News writes that the state will welcome travelers from South Korea starting next week, thanks to an expansion of the Safe Travels Program. Currently, visitors from the other U.S. states and Japan may visit the islands if they adhere to the pre-travel testing program.
Mahalo,
Your Bennet Group Team