Spotlight Hawaii

Hawaii Department of Education Superintendent Christina Kishimoto joined Spotlight Hawaii

Lt. Gov. Josh Green joined Spotlight Hawaii to discuss the latest with COVID-19

Hawaii State Senate President Ron Kouchi joined Spotlight Hawaii

Carl Bonham, executive director of UHERO, joined Spotlight Hawaii

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell joined Spot Light Hawaii

Gov. David Ige joined Spotlight Hawaii

Hawaii Department of Health Director Libby Char joined us today for Spotlight Hawaii

Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami did not mince words when he shared his reaction to news of a Kauai couple arrested over the weekend for traveling on a flight from San Francisco to Lihue, after knowingly testing positive for the coronavirus.

“It was a reckless action and it really did not put into thought of other people’s health and safety. It’s disappointing but we know that this is not the first time that people have boarded airplanes knowingly positive and gotten on and made their way to Kauai,” he said this morning on Spotlight Hawaii.

The couple was arrested for reckless endangering after arriving on Kauai, and later released on bail.

Mayor Kawakami said he is doing all he can to stop the spread of COVID-19 on his island, including a controversial move starting today to opt out of the state’s Safe Travels program. For the foreseeable future, anyone arriving on Kauai will have to quarantine for 14 days, which is a major blow to island’s the struggling economy.

Kawakami said he did not want to take this severe step, preferring instead to mandate a second test for all arriving passengers after a three day quarantine, but the state rejected that plan and so he felt he had no other choice.

“We have a well thought out plan that our team formulated to have a second test three days after arrival,” he said.

“We had acquired the tests on our own. We had contracts in place to have testing partners go out and administer the second test, but we were denied and the option we were given was to opt out.”

Kawakami said he will continue to present his plan to Gov. David Ige in the hopes of approval. Given the limited healthcare capacity on Kauai and the rising case count on the mainland, he said he believes post-arrival testing is safest path forward.

“If the fear is the failure of the program, well, let me fail,” he said.

“Kauai deserves to be offered an opportunity to see if this model works moving forward, especially since we’re seeing a huge rise in cases on the continental United States.”

Gov. David Ige said since the Safe Travels program began, nearly 300 people have entered the state and then been informed of a positive COVID-19 test. That figure encompasses a mix of returning residents and visitors, some of whom arrived in the islands without any testing, some who had pending results when they boarded their flights, and others who had with a negative test upon arrival but then later tested positive for the virus in the state’s surveillance testing. A positive result, particularly for a non-resident, creates a myriad of challenges beyond the health risks.

“Once that happens, we’ve had hotels cancel their reservations, you know, they are often times placed on a ‘do not board’ list by the CDC, where they can’t leave the islands then for 14 days. And so even though it may be less than 300 of those cases, it could represent, if they became positive on the airlines and that they had to isolate the close contacts of those individuals, you know, it could be as many as 3,000 people who end up being on this no fly list and cannot leave the islands,” Ige explained this morning on Spotlight Hawaii.

Ige said that number played a large part in his decision to mandate a negative test for everyone entering the state, in order to bypass a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

All four county mayors have called for more testing upon arrival. The Governor said agrees that more testing is better, but the state has limited testing capacity. Ige said he will be meeting with Mayor Kirk Caldwell early this week to discuss how to best use the city’s new testing facility at the airport.

“I’m glad that Mayor Caldwell had brought in that testing trailer at the airport, and we’re trying to develop a more robust testing program that can utilize that capacity,” he said.

The Governor also spoke about the state’s financial challenges, which are substantial. The state is facing a budget shortfall of up to $1.5 billion dollars, which translates to roughly 25% of the state’s budget. Ige is currently drafting the proposed budget, which he will present next month. He said everything is on the table, including furloughs and layoffs.

“Every department and agency will be impacted, there’s nobody that will be spared. We will be forced to be cutting public education and the University, as well as you know, social safety net programs,” Ige said.

“We wish that we didn’t have to. We will be putting a priority on those programs but a 25% reduction in revenues is just something that is so significant it will impact virtually all of the programs in state government.”

Hawaii has the lowest coronavirus positivity rate in the country, which Ige said is thanks to the tremendous sacrifices of local residents. He thanked the community for wearing masks, complying with social distancing requirements, and caring for one another.

“I did just want to thank the people of Hawaii. I’m proud to be Governor of Hawaii and we have responded well to the pandemic. The virus does not recognize boundaries and so we all need to remain vigilant,” he said.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green joined Spotlight Hawaii