Hawaii Daily COVID-19 Update: Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Hawaii Daily COVID-19 coronavirus reports and statistics from government departments as of Wednesday, May 6, 2020 in the Aloha State.

Governor’s Office:

Greenlight for Phase One of Hawai‘i’s Re-Opening is Tomorrow

Governor Ige announced yesterday the stabilization phase of the state’s reopening and economic recovery. This includes reductions in restrictions for businesses classified as low risk from a health perspective. Today the governor provided further clarification on the specifics of his 7^th Supplementary Proclamation which lists businesses/operations designated for reopening, outlines safety guidelines, and includes county-specific requirements. Retail businesses on O‘ahu may not open until May 15. Maui County is announcing its plans today for re-openings. The governor reiterated his philosophy that while statewide directives are being worked on, he recognizes that the counties should have the flexibility to adjust plans to meet the unique needs of their communities. Exclusive of individual county re-openings these are the businesses/industries approved for opening under the proclamation:

• Agriculture (non-food), such as landscape, ornamental plant growers, and nurseries
• Auto Dealerships
• Car Washes
• Childcare services, licensed or authorized under the law
• Pet Grooming Services
• Observatories & Support Facilities
• Retail & Repair Services, such as apparel, florists, watch & surfboard repair (Note: retail does not re-open in City & County of Honolulu until May 15)
• Shopping Malls – limited to retail and repair services

https://governor.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2005024-ATG_Seventh-Supplementary-Proclamation-for-COVID-19-distribution-signed-1.pdf

Lieutenant Governor’s Office:

• As of today, 558 people have recovered out of 626 cases, an 89.1% recovery rate
• In national comparisons, we have 43.6 total cases per 100,000 people, which is the second lowest case rate in the U.S., only behind Montana.
• Hawai‘i has the lowest mortality rate in the U.S. with 1.2 deaths per 100,000 people in our population.

Department of Health:

Only One New COVID-19 Case Reported

The one new case is an adult from the City & County of Honolulu. Two cases changed residence status. One was changed from non-resident to Honolulu resident. The other changed from non-resident to Maui resident. This brings the total of COVID-19 positive cases among state residents to 566. Non-resident cases total 54 and 6 are unknown place of residence.

Hawai‘i COVID-19 Counts as of 12:00 noon, May 6, 2020

** Refers to positive cases that have an unknown county of diagnosis at the time of this report. As more information becomes available for these cases, they are assigned to the proper County of Diagnosis. A negative number indicates the number of previously unknown cases that have now been assigned to a county.

Laboratory* Testing Data

*Electronic Laboratory Reporting  **24 test results were inconclusive.

For more tables please visit: https://health.hawaii.gov/docd/

Healthcare Association of Hawai‘i Produces Multi-Lingual Acute Care Info

A resource created by the Hawai‘i State Center for Nursing and the Healthcare Association of Hawai‘i focuses on post-acute for COVID-19 patients and includes valuable information for people outside of healthcare, particularly for non-English speakers. Anyone can access it (no password required).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XePaKv7Ar59PG7z37QqzIb8WfynEx5BK5ZfK3VLXIJA/edit#gid=1165090206

Hawai‘i Tourism Authority:

HTA Releases Breakdown of Visitor’s “Purpose of Trip”

HTA has released a breakdown of what incoming visitor’s said was their reason for coming to Hawai‘i, otherwise known as their “purpose of trip.” The breakdown is data available from March 26, when the State started a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all incoming passengers, to April 30. The list includes reasons such as honeymooning, getting married and business, among other things. A majority of those visitors indicated they were visiting friends and relatives. Only  272 people indicated they were strictly here for vacation during that time period. A majority of the passengers also indicated their accommodations would be at a friend or family member’s residence.

Visitors are people who do not have a Hawai‘i ID, including essential healthcare workers, essential federal workers, former residents like mainland college students coming to stay with family, military on temporary assignment and leisure travelers.

To view the entire table:

https://www.hawaiitourismauthority.org/media/4564/050620-passenger-count-press-release.pdf

Yesterday Hawai‘i’s airports saw 773 total passengers. This includes 216 visitors and 286 residents. The following table shows passenger numbers coming into the state. The table in the DBEDT section shows interisland travel.

AIRPORT ARRIVALS FOR TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2020

Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism

INTERISLAND AIRPORT ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES FOR MAY 3, 2020

https://dbedt.hawaii.gov/economic/covid19/

Department of Land and Natural Resources:

More Information on Reopening of Select Hawai‘i State Parks

At Governor Ige’s daily news briefing, DLNR Chair Suzanne Case said, “We’re very pleased that the curve has flattened and this is allowing the DLNR Division of State Parks to re-open select parks and monuments. State Parks administration and staff carefully looked at each park to determine which ones could be opened with an emphasis on social distancing.” There are several, very popular parks such as Diamond Head State Monument that will remain closed because creating social distancing is not possible. There are other lookouts or trails in parks where the six-foot social distancing recommendation is difficult.  The Dept. of Health advised DLNR that as long as people are moving past each other, even if they’re within 6 ft of each other and not wearing a mask, we wouldn’t categorize those persons as anything but low risk at most and likely no risk. Common park activities like parties, gatherings, picnics, setting up on the beach, and camping are still not allowed. Use is strictly for mobile activities such as hiking and ocean use to support our residents physical and emotional health during the safer at home mandate. The list of re-opened state parks is quite long and includes restrictions related to open hours and parking, so people are encouraged to visit the State Parks website, as things can change quickly. That address is dlnr.hawaii.gov/dsp/

Read the full news release here: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/blog/2020/05/06/nr20-056/

Read about respectful wildlife viewing here: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/blog/2020/05/06/nr20-057/

Department of Transportation:

Low Risk Safety Checks Can Resume May 15

In consideration of Governor Ige allowing the reopening of low risk businesses that take necessary precautions, DOT is coordinating the reopening of stations for Periodic Motor Vehicle Inspections (PMVI or Safety Checks) starting Friday. The safety check waiver announced on April 30 will not be changed to allow PMVI stations, Counties, and the public enough time to conduct and process safety checks. The waiver announced previously was:

Safety check certificates and stickers expiring on or before May 31, 2020, will remain valid until August 31, 2020. All other safety checks that expire in 2020 will be valid for an additional 3 months after the 2020 expiration date.

The safety check extension does not impact the validity of the motor vehicle registration. The motor vehicle registration must still be unexpired to be valid. County motor vehicle registration offices are accepting renewals through a variety of methods, including mail, kiosk (where available), and online.

https://hidot.hawaii.gov/blog/2020/05/06/low-risk-safety-checks-can-resume-may-15/

Yesterday’s Hawaii Daily COVID-19 Update.