Hawaii COVID-19 Infections: One Record High After Another

waikiki2 | eTurboNews | eTN
Hawaii COVID-19 Infections Surging
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Hawaii Tourism is booming, and so is COVID-19 among the non-vaccinated like never before. With 243 new coronavirus infections, the Aloha State is in big trouble.

  1. New cases of COVID-19 in Hawaii are surging and have been climbing every day for over a week.
  2. Factoring in the percentage of people now vaccinated in the state, Hawaii is witnessing new infections that are more than double that of the recorded highest day since the pandemic.
  3. With such an increase in new cases, one might think it is time to reinstitute travel mandates, but so far the government has not changed a thing.

Deducting those that are currently vaccinated in the state (60 percent), 243 infections would extrapolate out to mean close to 700 infections based on last year’s numbers before vaccinations occured.

The worst day since the pandemic broke out was August 27, 2020, with 371 daily new cases. But based on factoring out those vaccinated, today was the highest ever recorded increase in new infections, and tourism leaders are silent.

Hotels, restaurants, and shops are full. There is hardly space for popular beaches, like Waikiki Beach, to find a spot for your towel.

There are no international arrivals, but domestic arrivals combined register more arrivals already than before the pandemic.

The coronavirus infection rates in Hawaii have reached triple digits for the last 8 days and are climbing every day.

146 new cases were registered in Honolulu County, 50 in Hawaii County, 14 in Maui County, and 8 in Kauai County.

Approximately 78 percent of cases in July are from community spread, 20 percent from residents returning from travel, and 2 percent from non-resident travel.

Record tourism arrivals may have only a 2 percent reason, which is good news for the economy, but with such an increase in numbers, it may be time to roll back restrictions.

The last time Hawaii was under a complete lock-down with the number of new cases being seen. Today, not a word is being said by government officials.

Since July 8, 2021, fully-vaccinated visitors no longer have to worry about providing a negative PCR test to avoid 10 days quarantine, and with more than 30,000 arrivals a day, this change in travel restrictions shows.

There are more visitors in Hawaii right now compared to 2019. If you take a stroll or a drive down Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki, only about 5 percent of people are wearing masks. Yet, with high numbers of new cases, not one peep from the Governor to mandate mask wearing again.

Hawaii is following a trend in the United States that people are fed up and mentally immune. They no longer care to mask up, which would be the single most preventative against COVID-19 aside from being fully vaccinated. This is a harmful mindset and a dangerous development.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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