Hawai‘i COVID-19 News Update – October 15, 2021
Aloha,
Here are the latest COVID-19 news and issues facing Hawai‘i that you need to know this week.
State and county officials are loosening COVID-19 restrictions across the island chain.
- Within the past week, Governor Ige has approved requests from O‘ahu, Maui and Kaua‘i counties to relax COVID-19 rules. Click here to review last’s update with the list of changes for O‘ahu.
- Starting tomorrow in Maui County, the following rules will be in place:
- Social gatherings will increase up to 10 indoors, up to 25 outdoors.
- Restaurants and bars can serve alcohol until midnight (instead of 10 p.m.).
- Up to 10 guests will be allowed per table at restaurants (instead of 5).
- Unvaccinated patrons may also dine indoors, with proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of entry.
- KHON2 reports Hawai‘i Island Mayor Roth put in a request to the governor’s office to loosen social gathering limits currently set at 10 indoors and 10 outdoors, to 10 indoors and 25 outdoors like the rest of the state.
- Kaua‘i Mayor Kawakami dropped the island’s tier system, though people will still have to follow the state’s gathering and mask mandates.
- State officials also confirm there are no planned changes to the Safe Travels program at this time.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green calls on other state and city leaders to drop all outdoor COVID-19 restrictions by November 1.
- Lt. Gov Green told Hawaiʻi News Now, “We’re moving into the next phase of the pandemic...We’re close. Every two weeks we’ve been dropping by 50% – our case counts. And if we continue at this pace, which we will at this point, our positivity rate will be probably under 1.5% in a couple weeks.”
- Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi says he’s optimistic outdoor restrictions will be lifted soon, but he didn’t offer a timeline. The mayor is also hoping more large-scale events could resume by 2022.
- In particular, Mayor Blangiardi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he’s having discussions around opening up attendance at future University of Hawai‘i football games in November, expanding attendance guidelines for the Honolulu Marathon in December, and hosting sports events like the Hawai‘i Bowl and a basketball tournament with ESPN.
- Any changes to large-scale events hinge on public health guidance provided by the Department of Health. Mayor Blangiardi said, “I’ve looked at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) models. They look very favorable as far as the projections.”
A University of Hawai‘i economist says the state’s economy still needs “a tremendous amount of recovery.”
- During a briefing Monday before the state House Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness, Dr. Carl Bonham, the executive director of the University of Hawaiʻi’s Economic Research Organization, said jobs are still down 14% from before the pandemic. He also noted that the expiration of federal COVID-19 relief funds is hitting families hard.
- According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Dr. Bonham warned: “that the loss of federal dollars is creating a potentially perilous situation in Hawaii, particularly as tourism remains depressed due to the national surge in cases and calls from Ige for tourists to stay away.”
- Civil Beat reports that medical professionals say Hawai‘i’s social and economic threats are now greater than those posed by the virus.
- Ray Vara, president and chief executive of Hawaii Pacific Health, said, “Poverty is the greatest enemy of health. COVID’s not over. But the question is how well do we learn to co-exist with it.”
- Meanwhile, Hawai‘i isn’t recording the “dreaded wave of evictions” expected following the end of the statewide eviction moratorium. The moratorium was replaced by a new law, Act 57, designed to manage the flow of evictions by requiring mediation as a step in the eviction process. The Mediation Center of the Pacific reports it’s seeing a 90% success rate for mediation in helping landlords and tenants find solutions.
Hawai‘i leaders contemplate the concept of “regenerative tourism” to save Hawai‘i’s #1 industry.
- Pauline Sheldon, a professor emerita at the University of Hawaii’s Travel Industry Management School, describes the concept as something that can produce benefits to the community that far outweigh tourism’s negative side effects. Her textbook definition is that regenerative tourism “replenishes, revitalizes and contributes to the long-term flourishing of destination communities and environments.”
- Currently, the public’s view of tourism has never been worse, despite tourism’s importance to the economy, where about one in six jobs are tourism-related.
- Sherry Menor-McNamara, the president and chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, served on the steering committee that shaped the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s destination management plan calling for regenerative tourism.
- Menor-McNamara said, “How can we ensure that tourism benefits our communities and respects the communities and makes them better? As we move forward, what does that look like?”
- Click here to read the full story from Civil Beat on the topic.
Mahalo nui loa,
Your BG Team