This morning Lt. Gov. Josh Green again reiterated a plea for a 72-hour shutdown (what he’d previously called “stay-at-home”), and which he now just referred to as a “pause.” Will this happen? We don’t know.
“I have recommended a 72 hour pause over the holiday weekend to the Gov and Mayors to ensure that hospitalizations stay at a manageable level. Our hospital teams are already stretched, and we can simply not afford an additional surge from large gatherings. Until we get through this-> mask wearing, washing hands, avoiding group gatherings & staying home if you are sick are critical to keeping hospital numbers within capacity.” – Lt. Gov. Green
This comes just two days after Governor Ige said there was nothing of the kind planned. That statement from the governor came after an abundance of rumors in social media and the press.
There are currently no plans to shut down. — Governor Ige
The announcement followed widespread and obviously unfounded rumors we had seen circulating on Facebook and elsewhere. The governor’s full statement was:
“There have been rumors circulating about a shut down in Hawai’i. I want to clear the record that there are currently no plans to shut down. All posts on social media and being distributed by other means are not true. Official announcements will always come from official channels. Mahalo.” — David Ige.
This again all comes as no surprise, given the mixed messages from the governor and other state officials, including the lieutenant governor, about the current situation. It is confusing, to say the least, to have the state’s two highest-placed officials contradict one another repeatedly.
Shutdown or no shutdown – who are you going to believe?
The situation with Hawaii’s Covid 19 case and hospitalization surge and our ongoing lack of medical resources, of course, remain critical. Unfortunately, however, the message from last week asking visitors to stay home was confusing and mostly did not dissuade their largely already planned and paid-for Hawaii vacations.
The governor never said whether or not any enforcement would happen subsequently or what other plans were on the table, including a shutdown, curfew, quarantine supervision, or pre and post-travel testing mandates for all travelers, among others.
This comes as Hawaii listed 12 new Covid related deaths today and 455 new cases. The Hawaii case count has been lower the last couple of days. Unfortunately, Covid has been going in a dangerous direction here for the past two months. During that time, however, there has been little communication as to what would happen next. And, at the same time, Hawaii officials continue to assert that the visitor portion of Hawaii’s Covid problems represents less than 2%.
Lt. Gov. Green had previously mentioned a Labor Day shutdown.
In now typical contradictory words emanating from the lieutenant governor and the governor, Josh Green yesterday spoke about a possible “72-hour stay-at-home order” over Labor Day weekend. He said that July 4th weekend was terrible for Covid in Hawaii. He is trying to avoid the same thing happening next weekend and said the governor and the mayors would have to consider such a shutdown.
We’ll update you if we learn more.
Updated 9/1/21. 11 am.
Please forgive me if I’m being inappropriate. I’m planning on relocating to Maui at the end of 2022 from San Francisco….fell in love with it, but now I’m beginning to have second thoughts. I’m terrified of spiders, centipedes and other insects especially after reading the posts here. What’s the best way to prevent them from entering my private quarters or making contact? So grateful for your help!
Hi Jeffrey.
There may be better posts to comment on, such as one we did on centipedes that has been extremely popular. https://beatofhawaii.com/centipedes-in-hawaii-i-was-stung-today/. Perhaps speak with a pest control person? Not our area. Bugs and tropical places like Hawaii go hand in hand. There is nothing particularly dangerous here, which is a good thing.
Aloha.
Again….reiterate…rn services were offerred by my husband last year and ignored. After 34 trips to Hawaii, a free vacation was not on our minds…only a chance to help. Who was coordinating tbat bulletin for help? Now….the time limit is up! First grandchild coming. We could have been helping relieve the burden
So now again hospitals need help. Locals should help and limit gatherings. And Low airfaes bring in new type of visitor…carry a big stick! Especially for those who show lack of respect down to the sea turtles.
Stop optional choice selections…mandate and penalize. This war is against a virus…and in wartime it’s the good of society first to the individual.
It’s my understanding that Hawaii has 500 ICU beds and we stand at about 430 Covid patients in them (all unvaccinated)….all the LG is saying is if it continues to get worse more drastic measures will have to be looked at…his suggestion that everyone just have a more intimate holiday weekend rather then a large gathering makes a lot of sense to me….what he sees and all of us on here don’t is a lot of people dying…terrible deaths by the way and ones that could have been prevented.
All he’s guilty of is trying slow down a disaster and save lives. Not just the Covid patients but the many people that are now being denied potentially life saving tests or procedures because the hospital is to full.
What’s really sad is so much of the debate against him is based on misinformation that is killing people all across America everyday.
Umm, not sure where you’re getting those statistics from, JohnW, but your understanding is wrong. There’s nowhere that I’ve found that shows the state of Hawaii ever having 500 ICU beds, and NO not even close to 430 who you claim to be all unvaccinated, are in ICU beds. It’s time to stop making up numbers.
The following link gives some recent percentage breakdowns.
stacker.com/stories/17030/counties-lowest-hospital-bed-capacity-hawaii
“…what he sees and all of us on here don’t is a lot of people dying…terrible deaths by the way and ones that could have been prevented.”
Please, how exactly do you Know what Green sees that “all of us on here don’t is alot of people dying…”🙄
He’s a doctor, and he’s seen death his entire career, but there have been only 102 Covid deaths since June 1st (that’s a little over 1 per day average), and just over 600 total from the beginning, which is a miniscule number compared to the 1.4 million people in the state. You can actually get true statistics from doing research.
worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/Hawaii
I have an idea…how about you provide truthful context, stop making up figures, stop the virtue signaling and pandering, and start providing facts, instead of spreading false information.
Mahalo
Jim, I was writing from memory so I revisited it….. In yesterday’s Star Advertiser they said there are “437 Covid patients at this time, a 5% increase from the previous day, by comparison, on July 1st there was 40”.
The LG is quoted as a saying “the numbers must drop because we can only handle up to 500 people in the hospitals with Covid.”
I live in Hawaii so maybe you are unaware but the LG’s day job is as an ER doc. He is working his okole off trying to save lives and the number of people dying from Covid is escalating and as we all know, mostly unvaccinated.
That said we spared on here previously and I never got around to saying that despite our differences I do respect your decision to at least say you are masking when appropriate, avoiding big crowds and staying healthy. That’s a lot better then the Covid deniers that won’t even consider a mask to help protect others. if you don’t want to get the vaccine that’s your choice, but at least you are doing your part in your own way.
That is total patients in hospital. Not in ICU
Sean is right, I was recalling from memory so I looked up the article. It said we have 437 Covid patients and Dr Green said we only have the capability to admit about 500 Covid patients before decisions have to be made as to who gets what treatment….not all are in ICU is my mistake. The point being is that the available beds are rapidly diminishing. In early July there were 40 Covid patients hospitalized and as of Thursday 437. There was actually a 5% jump the day before the article. It’s not just the Covid beds that are diminishing, people are now being turned away for elective procedures and tests because of so many unvaccinated Covid patients filling up the hospital. The “all” unvaccinated number came from a previous article that stated that statistic for that day. However I stand corrected to clarify that obviously that number is fluid, right now about 88% in the hospitals with Covid are unvaccinated.
Again the point is that the cases are rapidly climbing and the other day we recorded 13 deaths, the highest count in a single day in Hawaii since the pandemic started. Sure seems to me a more intimate Labor Day weekend rather then hosting a large gathering makes a lot of sense. We are running out of room to treat Covid patients here in Hawaii.
and that unvaccinated number is fluid, some vaccinated people do get seriously ill but it’s rare, right now the number of all the Covid patients in the hospitals in Hawaii stands at 88% unvaccinated
The “Hawaii Emergency Management Agency” (HI-EMA) web site includes a handy-dandy “HI-EMA COVID-19 Dashboard”. If the blogs guys allow, here is a link:
hiema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/9a19e1adeceb46c58185cb0396faf36b
Real time info re COVID numbers, including real-time numbers of hospitalizations and ICU/vent use. capacity. You can filter to specific islands.
According to the HI-EMA, the state of Hawaii indeed has 438 hospitalized COVID patients, of which 96 are in ICU beds, and 77 of those on vents. There are also 173 non-COID ICU beds occupied, for a total 269 out of 342 ICU beds statewide. And another 104 non-COVID people on vents for a total of 181 occupied vents out of 607 statewide. Here on Kauai, we have 2 ICU COVID patients (neither on a vent), and another 2 non-COVID ICU patients for a total of 4 ICU beds out of 11 available.
While the site is choke-full of COVID numbers, there are NO breakdowns as to vaccinated versus unvaccinated, or as to age, obesity or other comorbidities, sex, race, maskers v unmaskers, etc. Same with positive/negative COVID tests – there are totals but no further info.
“It’s my understanding that Hawaii has 500 ICU beds and we stand at about 430 Covid patients in them (all unvaccinated)”
source for this? sounds imposible that all of the hospitalized are unvaxxed in hawaii when in other states 20-40% of all hospitalizations are people that are vaxxed
just keep spewing those lies of yours. I keep hearing this – youtube scientists and warriors vs the real doctors hospitals and scientists. Sorry I am going to trust them. You cannot provide any proof ot aht 20-40%
I just spoke to my brother last night and their hospital is 100% non vaccinated in their hospital. Not one vaccinated. SO just stop lying please.
Aloha BOH Bro’s
If you want to take a break from all this covid stress checkout “The 100 Foot Wave” on HBO.
It focus on Garret McNamara a surfer 🏄 from Hawaii riding 100 foot waves in Portugal.
Lets try toget it straight.
Aloha and thank you for your accurate and constant updates.
Things are about to get really interesting.
Vote NO on Josh Green for Governor!!!
Why would you want to vote “no” on someone who is trying to not only save lives but also keep the hospitals open for other emergencies and keep healthcare workers from total exhaustion. He could be saving your life or the life of a loved one.
How many more cases per day will it take? How many deaths will it take? How long before all our hospitals are filled to compacity? How long Governor before you stand before us and take the courageous heat for the inevitable shut down? The longer we wait, the longer the shut down. But no. Let’s just sit around some more and pretend it’s just going to go away. Let’s just follow the stupid template.
Hmmm good question.. Last year with 318 hospitalizations they were crying capacity issues.. Low and behold Hawaii has a capacity of 710 for Covid…. So, mmm, yeah never really close to an issue… Lie #1
How many more weeks and how many more articles are going to be posted about catastrophic capacitother yeary issues? And yet… “still teetering on the brink yet, still going” Sooner or later you’ll learn what fear porn is.
Florida.. doom and gloom, doom and gloom from everyone NOT in Florida, or some random hospital staff concerned with masks in school.. Yet here they are a month later, no catastrophe.
Every other year… “Flu puts strain on hospital capacity” and yet…. still functioning.
Half the Country has bought into the tale of needing mandates to flatten the curve. And there those States are… in the same predicament as any other State.
How’s Hawaii doing with all its mandates BTW?
Well Sean if your governor was not intentionally burying the statistics from your state There is a catastrophe there. If you say it isnt happening and bury the statistics and yell All is Well Sean believes it. Talk about sheep.
I’m arriving for a month in oct. the mixed messaging is really getting me stressed out, if you shut down I can reschedule with no penalties, move all monies paid to next year, but with your governor telling us to stay away it does nothing for my situation, I will lose all money paid, certainly can’t afford that, I guess I’m going to have to come and try to enjoy my stay. Thanks.
Hi John.
We don’t have the ability to allay all of your valid concerns. On the other hand, we’ll keep you updated and hope everything works as you have planned.
Aloha.
Lt is a physician working pandemic from day one. Gov has always viewed with glasses without lenses, up down and all around. Because surging and deaths continue to rise overwhelmingly in Hawaii, and many businesses not running for visitors enjoyment, I would cancel my trip to the islands and wait for a better time to fly. I’ve canceled 3 x trips to visit grandchildren, dying but safety first for everyone. We look for you, be safe, aloha