Hawaii‘s tourism, restaurant, bar, and events industries are grappling with more than 200,000 people who have registered as unemployed.
But Governor David Ige and other senior state officials warned Monday that reopening businesses and ramping up the broader economic engine are still a long way off and must be phased in.
Alan Oshima, the state navigator on economic recovery and resilience appointed by Ige to help coordinate Hawaii’s economic recovery from COVID-19, told a news conference Monday that the reopening of the economy would come in three phases.
First, the number of COVID-19 cases needs to be stabilized. Second, certain activities would be allowed again, but one at a time and gradually. A third phase would focus on supporting business and employment growth, he said.
Also on Monday, members of a US state committee dealing with economic recovery reported on progress in creating a framework for reopening the Hawaiian economy.
The CEO of the Hawaii Medical Service Association, Dr. Mark Mugiishi, who sits on the committee, said Monday that Hawaii was about a month away from putting in place the systems needed to gradually restart the economy. This includes the ability to conduct screenings, test people who might have the virus, and track people who came in contact with the carriers, as well as isolating those infected.
The system does not initially need to be set up to meet the requirements of a fully open economy, Mugiishi told other members of the House Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness on Monday.
For example, once the system is in place, small steps could be taken first, such as opening parks and beaches or eating in restaurants with limited capacity.
The four pillars – screening, testing, tracing, and isolation – need to be in place, he said, but added that “they don’t need to be scaled up by a huge amount”.
The rate of opening would likely vary by county, he said.
Ige said Monday the islands are not yet ready to relax restrictions on controlling the spread of the coronavirus, but his government will publish criteria to do so in the next few days.
Ige said one of the first activities he wants to resume is elective medical intervention.
Ige issued a stay at home order through April 30, though he said it was possible he could extend it.
Ige said he understood the frustration of some in the community calling for restrictions to be lifted, and conceded that Hawaii rose from one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country to its highest in a matter of weeks when the tourism industry closed. He said the government will restore normalcy if conditions are right.
“We are looking for the way forward based on science and data that can ensure public safety as we look at this evolving situation of COVID-19,” Ige said at the press conference.
Bruce Anderson, director of the state health department, said the state needs to make sure it has the situation under control for an extended period of time before controls are relaxed.
Hawaii also needs the infrastructure to quickly identify cases and close contacts, as well as quickly quarantine people to keep the virus from spreading, Anderson said.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who is also an ambulance doctor, noted that just last week the state had news of two major clusters, one at the Maui Memorial Medical Center and another focused on three McDonald’s restaurants in Kona.
“It really boils down to how safe we are from any significant spread,” said Green. “There are of course discussions about how careful we should be with our travelers to Hawaii. But we are postponing these talks into the future because we do not yet know whether we have completely eradicated this virus. “
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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