Spotlight Hawaii

University of Hawaii President David Lassner joined Spotlight Hawaii to discuss the impact the coronavirus pandemic is having on the UH system. Student enrollment appears to be holding steady, but the number change daily.

“This is the most unpredictable semester ever. Families are making decisions very late, they’re changing their minds. Right now UH Manoa is up a little bit compared to last fall, UH West Oahu is up a little bit compared to last fall, but daily you look at these things,” he said. “I think what’s a nice way to say this, is that it’s not as bad as our worst fears.”

School starts on Monday, but classes will look very different this year. Most will be online whenever possible.

“The only classes that we expect to see our campuses are those that involve activities that we couldn’t figure out how to move online, so that will be like science labs, students in the healthcare professions, art studios in the arts, those sorts of things will be conducted in the physically distanced manner in accordance with CDC guidelines, state guidelines, country orders, so we basically track through all of those,” Lassner explained.

Lassner discussed changes to UH athletics, with no fall sports this year thanks to cancellations from the Big West and the Mountain West Conferences, which UH participates in. He hopes those sports will resume in the spring.

“If sports can be played safely, the next question actually is will that be with or without fans,” he said.

Lassner also addressed the financial challenges the University is sure to face, with the looming state budget shortfall. He also also spoke about how the UH system is working to support the community, by creating learning opportunities for Hawaii residents.

He also highlighted the partnership between the John A. Burns School of Medicine and the City and County of Honolulu, to create a lab at the medical school for COVID-19 research and testing. Lassner says the facility is expected to be operational by Labor Day.

“It’s focused on increasing testing in underserved populations, in homeless, rural communities, that really don’t have access to healthcare. We’re also looking at it as research lab that will be able to explore new testing methodologies.”

Sherry Menor-McNamara, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, joined the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii to talk about the impact COVID-19 continues to have on local businesses. In short, the news is not good.

“I wish I could paint a better picture, but unfortunately the outlook looks pretty grim,” she said.

Menor-McNamara cited results of a recent survey conducted by the Chamber and University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO), which found a staggering number of local businesses will not be able to survive in these uncertain times.

“Back in April when we surveyed the members, ‘Do you think you’ll survive COVID?’ 6% said they would not be able to. That number jumped to 17%,” she explained. “And the further we delay the reopening of tourism, the more significant the impact will be.”

Menor-McNamara says says her organization is calling for more help from the government, including temporarily suspending the state general excise tax, adding more rent relief, and increasing the number of grants or loans available to local businesses. She is also encouraging individuals to buy local when they shop or dine out, and to follow health and safety guidelines, including social distancing and mask wearing to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Until the virus is under control, Menor-McNamara said opening the state to travelers will have to wait.

“Every time we push that delay, we will continue to see another wave of local businesses shutting down,” she said. “It’s going change the local landscape and fabric of communities.”

In a lengthy and frank discussion, Green warned that new restrictions could be coming if the daily case counts continue to rise.

“If we are here next week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and we’re still seeing 150 to 200 cases a day, that’s a number that’s not sustainable as far as taking care of patients three weeks later,” Green said. “My advice will have to be to the Governor to do the full shutdown and go back to a four week period of stay at home, if that’s the number. The reason for that is that it worked.”

Green says the state is ramping up contact tracing efforts, increasing the number of staff to 200, along with adding volunteers and the National Guard. He says officials are meeting today to work out more details.

On the subject of education, the Lt. Governor says he does not expect full in-person learning to resume in the first quarter of the school year, and says that parents should plan for the possibility of distance learning for the rest of the calendar year.

Green also spoke about the challenges of meeting the health needs of the Pacific Islander community, which has seen a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases. And he emphasized that young people, particularly millennials, who may not be as impacted by the virus physically, still need to take social distancing and mask-wearing mandates seriously.

“The business community and the economy will stay closed as long as we have high cases, and they will be unemployed. They will not be able to afford housing. They will not be able to afford cars. They will not be able to afford their education because they will not be able to go back to work. And they may kill their grandparents,” he explained. “So the combo of those things should be enough to kind of chill and not spread the virus for a month.”

Politics reporter Gordon Pang today joined Spotlight Hawaii, a new series from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that shines a spotlight on issues affecting our islands, and took viewer questions about the election.

Economist Paul Brewbaker of TZ Economics joined Spotlight Hawaii today to talk about the state’s economic outlook in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. With the increasing numbers of positive coronavirus cases, he says the news is not good.

“It’s pretty basic, everybody. The epidemiological problem is the economic problem. You don’t solve the economic problem until the epidemiological problem is solved, until we mitigate and contain spread of the novel coronavirus,” he said.

Brewbaker argued that containing the virus and bringing the case count back down is the only way to ultimately revive the economy, even if that means a temporary shutdown of activity and more economic pain in the short run.

“In Hawaii, we have failed since May to maintain the level of mitigation we had achieved, so we’re gonna have to start over again. Now that may not involve as draconian a form of shut down as we had to impose initially, because we’re all accustomed to mask wearing, and social distancing, more rigorous hygiene,” he said.

Brewbaker also shared his thoughts on reopening tourism, diversifying the economy, the housing market, statewide unemployment figures, and he noted that while Hawaii’s economy will recover, it may not look the same.

“Whenever there’s a large exogenous shot to the economy, there’s always a possibility that things you think were only temporary changes, turn out to be permanent changes,” he explained.

He pointed to changes in consumer spending on groceries and eating out, which shifted with the shutdown from March to May, explaining for example that while people will eventually go back to restaurants, the way they dine out many be different.

“I think it’s gonna be way more app based,” he said. “If you’re in business or if you’re thinking about changes in the employment landscape in the near future, I’d be thinking about how the structure of economic behavior changes among consumers and households and how business can anticipate, and respond, and get ahead of and be leaders moving us in those directions.”

Gov. David Ige is troubled by the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases in Hawaii and says that the state could soon face new restrictions, including a statewide shutdown of non-essential businesses.

“We do need to see the number being contained. If it continues to increase during this whole week, then I’m certain that the mayors and I would be looking at further action necessary,” he said. “We all know that a complete shutdown is not something that we want to do because of the impact on our businesses but if the numbers continue to increase then we may have to do that.”

Ige made his comments this morning on Spotlight Hawaii, where he took questions on a number of issues, including reopening transpacific travel, the number of contact tracers in the state, unemployment benefits and the planned start of school on Aug. 17.

Given the lower infection rates on the neighbor islands, Ige said that although the state Department of Education is a statewide system, it is possible that some counties may be able to start school ahead of others.

“We have always been looking at the reopening of school as a county by county possibility,” Ige said. “The virus activity on all of the neighbor island counties continues to be in containment and under control. And yes, it is possible for us to have different policies here on Oahu versus the neighbor island counties.”

He continued that once schools start, if a positive COVID-19 case is detected, that may not necessitate a systemwide shutdown.

“School closures, once they are reopened, can be looked at on a school by school basis, or even a building by building basis when they are looked at in the context of a school,” he said.

Ige said there is no pattern to the recent surge in cases. They come from social gatherings of all kinds, be it in the workplace, potlucks and parties at homes, large gatherings at the beach, or groups at gyms and bars. He emphasized the importance of personal responsibility and the basics that public health officials have been hammering for some time: wear a mask, physically distance yourself from others, stay home if you feel sick, and practice good personal hygiene.

“We can only be successful if we take personal responsibility for reducing the transmission of COVID-19 and that impacts every single aspect of what we do every day,” he said.

Spotlight Hawaii featured two guests to discuss the upcoming primary election on August 8th: Hawaii Office of Elections chief officer Scott Nago, followed by Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Pang.

Nago says his office has already started to process ballots that are arriving for the state’s first all mail-in election. He reminded the public that ballots must be received, not postmarked, by 7 p.m. on election day in order to be counted. He recommends mailing ballots at least five days before election day to make sure they received on time. His office has also set up a number of large drop boxes across the state, where voters can deposit their ballots as late as 7 p.m. on election day.

“Those ballots that are dropped off in those drop boxes are picked up daily by election officials,” Nago said. “Also voters can log on to our website to see if their ballot was received. So you can actually track your ballot to make sure it was received, accepted and processed for counting, as well as download your virtual ‘I voted’ sticker.”

To find a dropbox, track your ballot, or to find out how to register and vote same day, visit elections.hawaii.gov.

Gordon Pang, who has covered Honolulu city politics since 1995, joined the second half of the livestream, to offer his insights on the upcoming primary. He spoke about the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s poll, which shows Rick Blangiardi and Colleen Hanabusa in the lead for Honolulu mayor, but also found that 20% of voters are still undecided.

“Cleary when speaking to voters, the pandemic is on everyone’s mind and what they’re looking for is a leader that can lead Oahu beyond the pandemic, and be able to cope with the after effects,” Pang said.

Pang says that he is also paying close attention to candidate fundraising. The latest campaign finance reports are due at midnight, and he expects a large infusion of cash for the top candidates across the board.

Pang also spoke about the race for Honolulu city prosecutor, and the large number of open Honolulu City Council seats.

“We’re talking about five seats, which is the majority of the Council. This is really gonna shape what City Hall’s policies are going to look like in the next four years,” Pang said. “There’s five races, I think in at least four, possibly all five, they’re gonna go into the general and they’re completely unpredictable.”

Hawaii health officials today reported 47 new coronavirus cases as the statewide total climbed to 1,757.

“We’ve doubled our number cases in the last 30 days,” Green said. “It took us five months to get to 800 and then it took us one month to get to 1,700. Let me speak as a physician, mostly. For every 100 cases, we get 10 individuals that go into the hospital. And for every 65 cases that we are able to detect, one person dies in our state. So as you see these surges, it’s not an abstraction, it’s very real.”

Because of those surges, Green said he recommends limiting gathering in groups to 10 people or less.

“We have to be very mindful not to do any more large gatherings,” he said. “No street fairs, no large gatherings in parks, none of that stuff for a few months, that’s got to end.”

Green said that like so many, he wants to restart the economy by opening transpacific travel, but indicated that lifting the 14-day quarantine for travelers on Sept. 1 may not happen. He also spoke at length about the challenges of reopening schools by Aug. 4.

Green said he concerned about the overall stress and mental health challenges that so many Hawaii residents are facing in the face of so much uncertainty. He urged the public to continue to physically distance and wear face masks.