“The more that we can do to enforce it, the more we’ll get compliance. “It’s a huge challenge just because of people letting their guard down and starting to be less rigorous about wearing masks and complying with the limitations on gatherings,” he said. Ige said officials know that without enforcement, coronavirus-related restrictions are less effective. … I think it’s a great idea for retired police officers or law enforcement personnel who would like to provide that service to help with enforcement,” he said. “We do know that enforcement is important. Ige appeared supportive of the concept of a Quarantine Kapu Breakers’ bill to allow retired law enforcement to be deputized for a special task force to assist the Honolulu Police Department and the state Attorney General’s Office. He said effective enforcement is needed to stop large social gatherings and events, boost mask-wearing and stop the proliferation of illegal vacation rentals, where guests may be at higher risk of violating coronavirus-related restrictions. The challenge until then is to hold everyone together.
Ige said he anticipates that Hawaii will hit herd immunity in May or June. “I think we all need to continue to wear our mask and socially distance, at least until we get to herd immunity and everyone who wants to get vaccinated can get vaccinated.”
“That’s absolutely the wrong behavior,” Ige said. Ige said he’s worried about people dropping their guard, especially if they know that they’ve been vaccinated and tend to think that it’s back to business as usual. As a result of updated information, two previous cases - one from Oahu and one out-of-state - were removed from the counts. Monday’s new statewide infection cases include 53 on Oahu, 23 on Maui, 14 on Hawaii island and five Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state, according to health officials. The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 369 fatalities on Oahu, 53 on Hawaii island, 41 on Maui, one on Kauai and three Hawaii residents who died outside the state. State health officials reported no new coronavirus- related deaths as the statewide death toll remained at 467. The statistics released Monday reflect the new infection cases reported to the department Saturday. Officials say they consider infections reported in the past 14 days to be a “proxy number for active cases.” The number of active cases in the state increased by 12 Monday.
Health officials said Monday that of the state’s total infection count, 1,313 cases were considered active. State Department of Health officials Monday reported 95 new coronavirus infections statewide, bringing Hawaii’s total since the start of the pandemic to 30,228 cases. Ige’s Monday remarks were made against the backdrop of rising COVID infections, especially on Oahu and Maui.
If we hit the mark May 1 that anyone who wants to get vaccinated can schedule their vaccinations, I do think that we would be in a much, much better place to allow for interisland travel more freely.” “I would really just want to ask everyone to continue to be patient. “Unfortunately, Oahu and Maui have been stuck in these clusters, and they’ve been actually increasing the case counts and that really has been a concern,” Ige said. Later in the afternoon, he said the July 4 weekend might be a realistic goal for the reopening of interisland travel. Ige said Monday morning that he prefers to wait to lift the interisland quarantines until after May 1, when most everyone over the age of 16 who wants a vaccine in Hawaii will have had an opportunity to get vaccinated. “They are really committed to making it happen as quickly as possible, but there is much more work that needs to be done,” he said. “I believe that (CommonPass and CLEAR) will be amongst the first two companies that actually get a working vaccine passport, and we’re just glad that they are working with us because that means Hawaii would be able to incorporate that much, much ahead of other jurisdictions. “(Vaccination passports) won’t happen for at least four weeks or so,” Ige said. David Ige, who joined the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii on Monday morning and held an afternoon news conference, said the state is testing the technology needed for a vaccine passport with CommonPass and CLEAR but that they still aren’t ready. Kauai began allowing trans-Pacific travelers to go through Safe Travels Hawaii on Monday, but no other changes - including accepting a vaccine passport or lifting interisland quarantines - are expected until at least May.
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