COVID is SURGING in Hawaii as locals become increasingly complacent and visitor arrivals continue to climb. As a result, Governor Davide Ige says that Hawaii quarantine may extend past September 1.
Last week, things took a decidedly negative turn for Hawaii’s battle against COVID. For nearly the entire week, with daily new case reports in the triple digits. And, this week, things have been more or less the same. Yesterday saw a new single-day record with 144 new cases reported. Monday’s figure was 207, but that included a reporting error of 114 from the previous two days. That brought the statewide total to 2,591.
Yes, these numbers aren’t as bad as the rest of the US. But, as I’ve said SO MANY times before, Hawaii is a different place. In fact, the CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health, owner of Hawaii’s largest healthcare system, said that if this trend continues for the next 10 days, our medical system will begin to strain. True, rates of hospitalization aren’t so bad right now at 138, but that’s up from 75 just a week ago. And, as you can imagine, a near doubling of those figures every week can become disastrous pretty quickly.
The 7-day average test positivity rate currently stands at around 5.5%, while yesterday’s rate was about 8%. Hawaii’s previous average was 1.5%.
Potential Quarntine Extensions
If Hawaii can barely handle the situation at hand with less than 1,000 daily visitor arrivals, we definitely won’t be able to handle the pandemic with much larger visitor influxes. That’s why, yesterday, Governor Ige said that, should the current trend continue, the September 1 reopening date won’t happen.
As is usually the case, Ige had little to say. He says a decision on what to do next will be made soon. However, he didn’t commit to a timeline. Nor did he say what a new reopening target will be.
Other Changes Coming
Both Governor Ige and Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell would like to avoid locking down again. But, since Hawaii’s residents can’t seem to behave responsibly, both are threatening further action.
Already, Mayor Caldwell ordered all bars on Oahu closed for at least the next three weeks. He’s also asking the Honolulu Police Department to step up enforcement of emergency orders, including las requirements, limits on gatherings, and bar operations. Mayor Caldwell is also thinking of implementing tent and umbrella bans at county beaches and parks.
On the state side of things, officials are considering the closure of state parks and beaches once again.
Hawaii Quarantine May Extend Past September 1, Final Thoughts
Let’s call it like it is. Thing’s ain’t going well here. Nor are they going well in the rest of the US. So, maybe we just forget about reopening in 2020 altogether? I’m only half joking about this, by the way. Because, even the state’s reopening plan remains seriously flawed. If we can’t handle monitoring 500 to 1,000 visitors, how the heck are we going to handle a full reopening?
Plus, you know, there’s the little issue of Hawaii’s own residents causing a major surge on our own. Can you imagine what will happen is a large influx out outsiders?
So, if you’ve got Hawaii travel plans for September, I wouldn’t hold your breath on that.
Hawaii is an island state. It is a long way from the U.S. mainland. The state’s health system simply cannot cope with a large amount of Covid cases. The state’s health system backup plan essentially involves using the active duty military medical center in Honolulu, military field hospitals from the Navy and Army on Oahu and/or flying in civilian medical personnel from the mainland.
However, using military assets would cripple the mission capability of units of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command at a time when tensions with Communist China is rising. True, the military could fly in medical units from the mainland. But the key to avoid all this is to retain the travel restrictions that Hawaii has in place now.
The governor’s decisions are made with input from the Department of Defense. This angle of the Hawaii story is repeatedly missed by the media and others.
We are talking beach tourism vs. a health calamity and impacting a key war fighting command based in Hawaii.
Right. The local media rarely reports on anything dealing with the pandemic and the military, though that appears to be on purpose. US Pacific Command says maintaining secrecy on the pandemic’s impact on their forces and facilities is a matter of national security. However, I think the point you’re making is important for the naysayers to learn, as there are those that are still insisting Hawaii needs to reopen so they can take their vacation.
It seems to me the trouble is mainly occurring due to residents being careless, not with the visitors to the island. Also, with the requirement for visitors to have a negative Covid test within 72 hours of flying it almost seems they are safer than the actual residents and I am sure an economy that is largely based in tourism has to be hurting by now.
If nothing else, perhaps the island of Oahu which is where most of the cases are occurring should be locked down leaving the other islands to open with the pre-requisite of the negative Covid test for all visitors. At least part of Hawaii might recover financially then.
Aloha Sue, while tourism and our economy are definitely in deep trouble, allowing tourists to visit the islands other than Oahu isn’t a good idea. The other islands don’t have as robust a medical system as Oahu does. So, the 244 ICU beds, over 40% of which are currently occupied, are mostly on Oahu. The risk to the other island, then, is considerably higher. As a result, protecting those islands from imported cases from Oahu and the rest of the US remains a top priority.