Spotlight Hawaii

Honolulu prosecutor candidates Steve Alm and Megan Kau joined Spotlight Hawaii, a new series from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that shines a spotlight on issues affecting our islands, today and took viewer questions.

Gov. David Ige and Denise Iseri-Matsubara, the executive director of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, joined Spotlight Hawaii today and took viewer questions.

Gov. David Ige said it is unlikely that the state will open transpacific travel on October 1st, and that his office will release a timeframe of when that could happen sometime later this week. This morning on Spotlight Hawaii, the Governor said he met with a number of travel industry leaders over the weekend to work out what will be needed to safely bring visitors back.

“Just talking with many in the industry, it will probably not be October 1st, but in the next few days we will be providing a better plan for the scheduling of what those dates would look like,” he said.

Ige said the state’s new mandatory travel application that began earlier this month, and other protocols put in place for pre-travel testing will help to streamline the process, but hotels and other-related businesses have told him they likely need at least a month to gear up and prepare.

The Governor said he understands the frustrations regarding Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s restriction on limiting outdoor activity to individuals only, particularly for families with young children, but he supports the Mayor’s decision.

“The Mayor really felt that there needed to be a bright line that they could enforce on beaches, parks and trails, and decided that it should be individuals,” Ige said.

Ige has adjusted his own outdoor activity, with solo runs around the State Capitol.

“It is about changing our behavior in a way that helps us fight the virus. And you know, part of these are for short durations so that we can reduce the number of new cases that we’re seeing,” he said.

The Governor took questions on the economy, unemployment assistance, and the deadly coronavirus outbreak at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo. Ige also spoke about the changes in leadership at the Department of Health and expressed confidence in the state’s ramped up contact tracing program.

The Governor was followed by a brief interview with Hawaii Housing and Development Corporation executive director, Denise Iseri-Matsubara, who answered questions about the State’s Rental Relief and Housing Assistance Program.

Under the program, monthly rent payments of up to $2,000 per household on Oahu, or $1,500 per household on the neighbor islands are available. The $50 million program is being funded through CARES Act funding. To learn more, click here.

Nanci Kreidman, chief executive officer of Domestic Violence Action Center, and Tina Yamaki, president of Retail Merchants Association of Hawaii, joined Spotlight Hawaii today and answered viewer questions.

Lieutenant Governor Josh Green said he is sending a memo to the City, urging leaders to change Oahu’s stay-at-home order to allow for people from the same household to take part in outdoor activities together. Green said he does not believe the restrictions liming outdoor activity to one person are based on science, and says they should be relaxed.

Green shared his views in a wide-ranging interview this morning on Spotlight Hawaii, where he talked about the results of Oahu’s surge testing, the current hospital capacity, and weighed in on whether the state should reopen to transpacific travel on October 1st, with appropriate testing.

“There’s no reason we can’t do that,” he said.

Green proposed what he called a “soft opening” with two tracks for visitors and returning residents to avoid the 14-day mandatory quarantine: PCR testing within three days of travel, showing a negative COVID-19 result, or antigen testing three days before travel, and again within three days of arrival. Green says that kind of rapid testing is inexpensive and already being conducted at many airports outside of Hawaii.

“I don’t see any reason not to begin travel. Getting some hotels open, some restaurant activity going again,” Green said.

“As long as we’re giving enough tracing and testing to everybody, we can keep any eye one it. That’s really all that it takes.”

Green spoke highly of the new leadership at the Department of Health, highlighting the expanded contact tracing that is taking place. He also said he believes public schools will be able to reopen to in-person instruction in after the fall break, provided parents and teachers feel comfortable going back.

Green also urged everyone to get a flu vaccine.

“It is a good idea because if you can avoid having flu symptoms then you will not be put into the very difficult place of having flu-like symptoms and not knowing whether or not you have COVID.”

Spotlight Hawaii welcomed two guests Friday to discuss the latest in Hawaii’s public schools during the coronavirus pandemic and the new online Safe Travels application.

Hawaii State Teachers Association President Corey Rosenlee gave an update on how teachers are doing now that school is back in session. Douglas Murdock, chief information officer of the State Office of the Enterprise Technology Services, shared more about Safe Travels.

“The state of our teachers right now is stressed,” Rosenlee said. “Distance learning is much more difficult and a lot of our teachers feel like they are reinventing the wheel when it comes to how they teach.”

Rosenlee said HSTA members are frustrated by the lack of information about distance learning provided by the state Department of Education.

“That’s one of HSTA’s biggest frustrations, is we don’t know,” Rosenlee said. “The policies are being handled at a school level or at a complex area level, and so we don’t know how many students are on each campus, we don’t know how many teachers are on each campus.”

Rosenlee said DOE is not reporting by school when there are COVID-19 cases on campuses.

“So there’s no data to suggest whether or not schools that are having more people on campus are actually having more cases, and you would think that that kind of data would be very important for people making decisions and it’s just not being shared right now,” he said.

The DOE, which releases a tally of new COVID-19 cases weekly, said today a total of 25 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4.

Rosenlee was skeptical about school resuming in-person classes next month as planned.

“There’s no research right now that American schools of a large enough size can open effectively. And until there is such research that can show that, we should be going to distance learning for our students and their teachers,” he said.

Murdock joined the second half of the program to discuss the Safe Travels application, a form that all travelers entering the state of Hawaii or traveling from Oahu to any neighbor island must complete. The form collects health and travel information aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus and making contact tracing easier in the event of a known COVID-19 case.

“We have some different purposes in mind in building the application. One is to be able to protect the health of our residents and our visitors, to make sure we know who is coming in who might have health issues related to COVID-19 that we need to address. And then to be able to enforce the quarantine, to have real-time information, for our law enforcement and for our health officials,” he said.

Murdock continued, “And then to get us ready to be able to re-open the economy so that we can handle the negative COVID-19 tests when they start coming in as part of allowing travelers to come in without being in quarantine.”

Travelers are encouraged to fill out the form before arriving at the airport, within 24 hours of their flight. The form can be found at travel.hawaii.gov.

Anne Perreira-Eustaquio, acting Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), says her office has been making steady progress to help get benefits to those who qualify as quickly as possible, but she says empathizes with the thousands who are still waiting.

“I know it’s frustrating. I know they’re waiting. We’re trying our very hardest to get through the claims as fast as possible,” she told Spotlight Hawaii this morning.

“We are bringing on additional help. We are bringing on more volunteers in the next couple weeks. We are bringing on a call center to help us take the calls so we can get to those questions and help those individuals that need to be helped.”

Since the pandemic began the DLIR has faced an avalanche of claims, with more than 275,000 claims filed. Eustaquio says 96% of those have been addressed, with roughly 10,000 claims still pending. The pending claims are those that need further investigation, due to errors on the claim itself, or a discrepancy between an employee and his or her employer.

DLIR also manages Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a program launched this spring to give assistance to those who are self-employed or independent contractors. Eustaquio says the majority of PUA claims filed in Hawaii have been denied. Roughly 115,000 PUA claims have been filed, 75,000 have been denied, and another 13,800 are still pending eligibility.

Eustaquio also took questions on the newly announced $300 federal plus up for unemployment benefits. Claimants who receive a minimum benefit of $100 or more are eligible for an addition $300 a week. Those benefits are considered to be a new program, which means individuals will have to fill out new paperwork to obtain them.

“It’s a whole brand new program, we cannot use the same application that was used to pay out the $600 benefits. So the IT team is now working on programming a brand new system to pay out the $300,” she explained.

“The $300 will be retroactive to the week of August 1st. Right now we’ve been approved for three weeks of payments through FEMA. We are working on obtaining an additional week approval for benefits,” she said.

The DLIR has created new graphic informational charts available on their website to help the public navigate the system. To see them, visit labor.hawaii.gov.

Gov. David Ige joined Spotlight Hawaii today to discuss the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ige said that people in Hawaii will need to learn to live with the virus for at least the next 12 months, and that will mean significant adjustments to every day life.

“Each one of us has to recognize that everything we do, we have to differently. That really means wearing your mask even at home. You never know who might be exposed to the virus. Unless everyone in your home is completely shutdown, and not going out, and not interacting with anyone,” he said.

“Every business needs to change how they conduct business to maintain social distancing, to stop the spread of the virus. Virtually every industry, every organization, needs to think about what they can do to help fight the spread of the virus.”

Ige says concerns about the capacity of hospitals in the state led to the current “stay-at-home, work-from-home” order on Oahu. He says whether that is extended or not will depend on the number of COVID-19 cases in the community.

“We went from less than 50 COVID patients in hospitals all across the state, to more than 200 in very short order. And so that’s what drove the shutdown, the concern for the number of cases. The hospitals are stressed but not overwhelmed, and we want to make sure that they don’t get overwhelmed,” he said.

The governor also addressed the newly announced retirements of the heads of the state Department of Health and the Public Safety Department. He took questions about new unemployment benefits, contact tracing, the reopening of public schools and the pre-travel testing program.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said he knows the stay-at-home, work-from-home order is difficult for many Oahu residents, but he said the city is at “war” in the fight against coronavirus.

Speaking this morning on Spotlight Hawaii, Caldwell said he recently visited the Queen’s Medical Center, where nurses and doctors told him that those who recover from the virus can still suffer long-term consequences.

“They say they’re seeing more and more patients from early on, in March and April, that have lingering side effects. An inability to breathe well, they can’t run, they can’t walk upstairs, they get out of breath. They have what’s called ‘brain fog,’” Caldwell said. “People are having strokes and blood clots. That there’s clots in your lung and legs. And they think some of these could be permanent long lasting effects.”

Caldwell continued, “It’s not just about saving lives, it’s about protecting your population who could have long, long term, if not permanent effects, even if they recover, and even if they’re young.”

In parternship with the state and federal government, the city will be administering thousands of additional tests, to get a handle on the virus and stop the spread, including mass testing at the Aloha Stadium and H-3 freeway.

Caldwell said he awaiting for word from the state Department of Health on potentially adding several hundred more contact tracers. Caldwell would like to increase that workforce immediately, but cannot do so without approval from health officials.

Caldwell said he hopes the lockdown will not have to continue beyond the current 14-day order, but the number of cases will ultimately determine what happens next.

“Let make sure we can bring the number of cases down and then we can start to open up in a more thoughtful, protected way, all of us working together,” he said.

Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Peter Ingram joined Spotlight Hawaii to talk about the impact of the coronavirus on the company. Ingram says the airline has adapted by instituting new safety protocols, but with the return of the neighbor island quarantine and the continuation of the transpacific travel quarantine, customer demand is not there.

“The impact of COVID-19 has been nothing short of profound on our business. It’s just hard to fathom such a significant decline in demand and the ability for people to access our services,” he said.

Ingram says Hawaiian Airlines is losing upwards of $3 million a day, and has borrowed heavily to survive. They have offered early retirement opportunities, voluntary leaves, and extended furloughs to employees, but even with those departures, they expect to have to lay people off starting in October.

“Even when it’s voluntary, I will tell you, there were tears flowing as people were saying their goodbyes and it’s been a tough, tough period for all of our team,” he said.

A pre-travel COVID-19 testing program, which could mean the end of the 14-day transpacific travel quarantine, was initially set to begin in August, but has been pushed back repeatedly. That has been difficult for Hawaiian Airlines and others in the tourism industry to plan around.

“I’m obviously concerned, you know, having seen the date set for August 1st, and then see that shift to September 1st, and then see it shift to October, we’re anxious that there may be another slide in that date, candidly, particularly with the case count continuing to be high here in Hawaii,” he said.

Ingram says when the pre-testing program was first announced, there was a lot of interest from travelers and ticket sales increased, but without specifics from policymakers, that interest has waned.

“What we’re hoping to get, sooner rather than later, is more details and specifics of the absolute clarity around what tests are applicable, so that we can get information about where people can get tests, try and provide that to our guests,” he explained.

Ingram says he is eager to see pre-flight testing get underway, not just from a business standpoint, but also for mitigating the spread of the coronavirus.

“I think having the testing program in place is going to provide more safety for our community as well, in fact more safety than we have today, with a very small number of travelers coming back and forth from the islands every day without tests,” Ingram said.

Mike McCartney, director of Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, joined the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii to talk about the economic impact of the coronavirus on the state economy.

“Hawaii is going to be one of the last states to recover according to Moody’s Analytics, that just came out yesterday,” he said.

Before the pandemic, McCartney says tourists brought in roughly $50 million dollars a day to the state of Hawaii, so figuring out how to bring some of that spending back in a safe way is critical.

“We’re trying to find that right balance of keeping people safe and making sure we have an economy that can sustain all of us,” he said.

McCartney, who previously served as the head of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, said he does not expect a full scale reopening of transpacific travel until November or December, but that does not rule out smaller, more controlled efforts, like travel bubbles.

“I think the international market like Japan is one important that maybe we could do it together, and have a small bubble and start to expand it, and then show everyone that this is how you do it, and then continue to grow from that,” he said. “I think it’s, go slow to go fast.”

McCartney said the state has received several substantial grants through the CARES Act, including one for $30 million. He says the first $10 million of that will be going toward training programs to help people who have lost their jobs shift into new careers.

“These ideas came up from people in the business community, supported by the Legislature. So you’ll hear that announcement coming out shortly, that we’re going to be paying people to do that, as they retrain,” he explained.

He said there is also an initiative to support Hawaii’s fishing industry, and a third initiative supporting the state’s high tech entity, HCDC, to help local companies manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE).

“If we can start producing our own material, then that might be a strategic advantage for us, and so the legislature has given us money for that. So we’re gonna start implementing that in the weeks and months to come.”

McCartney said he is also hoping that more federal money comes Hawaii’s way, for sectors like construction, through infrastructure project funding or building more affordable housing.

“We see the urgency. We know can’t hang on, so we’re hoping also that other relief comes in, like federal money,” he said.