Tracing the virus in Hawaii? A show or for real?

Two ballrooms on the 4th floor of the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu are now converted into a control room for contact tracers.

Existing tracer training in conjunction with the UH John H. Burns School of Medicine now includes 50 Hawai‘i National Guard members who are working at HCC.  Another ballroom with work stations, phones, and computers is set up to accommodate an additional 50 personnel.

According to Governor Ige, a significant hurdle for expanding the contact tracing team previously was the lack of physical space at DOH. 

This problem seems to be resolved, but the press-conference organized today to showcase the new set-up felt more like a staged event one would expect in the former East Germany.

Hundreds of workplaces with computers were showing a blue Microsoft Windows entry page. There was not one person actually working in the room the press conference was conducted.

The second ballroom had about 10 people including some National Guard members working. 3 or 4 were actually behind a desk. Their computer screen showed something different than the blue Microsoft logo.

In addition to all the blue computer screens, dozens of keyboards and video displays were stacked on some of the tables facing the wall.

There is in fact room for a lot more tracers at the Convention Center – even with social distancing rules in place.

Dr. Anderson had told the Hawaiian People not too long ago the State had 105 active contract tracers. he also said that the State can tap into 450 additional tracers. All of this was a hoax.

Today Dr. Anderson said such tracers couldn’t be hired before, because of available space.

As of today, this cannot be an argument any longer. At the same time, Anderson said once a destination is overwhelmed with tracing, such activity may become impossible. Once this is the case only a lockdown could help.

Two months ago Anderson thought the red line to make tracing impossible could be met with a daily increase of about 70 cases in Hawaii. Today Hawaii has more than 3 times the increase every day.

There is no exact study on how many tracers are needed in the current environment with the record outbreak of COVID-19.

In today’s press conference Jurgen Steinmetz, who attended for eTurboNews | Hawaii News Online was not allowed to ask questions.

The governor’s press secretary Cindy McMillan lectured Juergen in saying. “I will not argue about you asking questions, but may consider if we have some extra time.”

Obviously, after some of the 10 or so attending journalists asked up to 6 questions each, there was no time left. In Hawaii, not all media is created equal. Inconvenient questions may not fit into the bigger picture., and you don’t want to ask what this bigger picture may be.

It means this story is based on speculation and observation.’

Photos and videos from the new tracing headquarters at the Hawaii Convention Center.