Last Friday, Hawaii Governor David Ige approved Kauai’s re-entry into the Hawaii Safe Travels program after signing out in early December due to an increase in travel-related COVID cases and limited resources.
The move means that travel restrictions on the Garden Isle will be relaxed. Kauai used to have one of the toughest restrictions in Hawaii, but starting April 5, it will reopen to trans-Pacific travelers who can skip a 10-day quarantine with a negative test result before arrival.
Kauai has made significant progress in fighting the pandemic due to its stricter quarantine rules. From March 11In total, the island has only had 186 confirmed cases and only one person has died from COVID-19. The state of Hawaii had a total of 27,023 cases and 448 deaths March 10th.
“The number of cases across the state and the mainland is stabilizing,” Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami said in a press release. “Our local hospitals work closely together and have plans for additional ICU capacity if needed. They have also received more equipment and have COVID testing and treatment options to respond to an increase in COVID-19 cases. “
The decision came months later an invoice Introduced in early January by several State House officials calling for the state travel program to be standardized and forcing Kauai to rejoin Safe Travels. The bill sparked heated debates from supporters and dissidents, leading to hundreds of letters pleading for and against creating a single travel policy for Hawaii.
“I own a vacation rental on Kauai,” wrote Lisa Steele. “My business helps support the Kauai economy. My guests eat at local restaurants, buy gifts for friends and families from local businesses, participate in local activities, and buy groceries from local grocery stores. Without the guests of the vacation rental industry, many, many businesses are closed. The homeless population has reached new record highs. People lose jobs. “
I. Sam-Vargas, who opposed the bill, wrote, “Having a nationwide plan for COVID travel is short-sighted and not good governance. How can all counties be treated equally if they are not vaguely similar in size and medical resources? … Do the right thing and let the counties continue to determine what is best for them. After all, all counties agree on their goal: get back to work as quickly as possible and protect the citizens. Only our strategies differ and are tailored to our own needs. “
Kauai had tried to balance the needs of its economy against those of its residents in order to survive the pandemic. At the beginning of 2021, the island had introduced “resort bubbles”, also known as the “quarantine program for improved movements”. This required tourists to quarantine a short list of participating properties for 72 hours until they returned a negative test result that allowed them to explore other areas of the island. The resort bubble provided some residents with much-needed incomes, but tourism is still down compared to a year earlier down by 96%.
Due to the lack of visitors, many small businesses have had to close their doors. In the fourth quarter of 2020 Kauai lost 7,500 jobs. Others feared, according to a survey conducted by the Kauai Chamber of Commerce late last year They would also be forced to close if there was no significant increase in tourism in the next few months.
Former business owner Kenny Ishii thinks the opening is good for everyone. Ishii was forced to close his own small business, Ono Family Restaurant, a local tourist destination that he owned and operated for over 30 years.
In one VideoIshii, a longtime resident, explains that while Kauai has experienced multiple devastating hurricanes and floods, it doesn’t compare to the chaos in its beloved community.
“It’s hard to see the church here under such stress. Sometimes it really burdens me, ”he says. Ishii also said that it was the first time in his life that he received unemployment benefits.
Receiving unemployment benefits has been a consistent issue during Hawaii’s pandemic lockdown. Many residents are still struggling after months of delay and the state unemployment system is overwhelmed.
In a recent news conference, Governor Ige said the state’s unemployment reserves were half a billion dollars at the start of the pandemic, but it was empty by June when Hawaii started borrowing federal funds. Department of Labor and Industrial Relations director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio says Hawaii’s unemployment call centers receive 200,000 calls a day from residents across the state.
According to residents of one of Hawaii’s unemployment relief groups on Facebook, many calls were not handled or applications were improperly handled, forcing some to reach out to their state officials for help. One such representative is Kauai’s Dee Morikawa, who took calls and emails from her constituents, including many in the hospitality industry, during the pandemic. Morikawa would also be one of the agents behind the bill to re-enter the Safe Travels program.
“This Kauai quarantine and deviation from Safe Travels have impacted their livelihoods,” she said in February. Her constituents included a single mother who could barely afford basic necessities, including the internet. Not only did the family struggle with distance education, the mother feared that at some point she would run out of resources to even claim unemployment.
“I am the voice of local residents and businesses who are afraid to speak publicly because of possible backlash,” Morikawa later added.
Other business owners are excited about the reopening but also fear reprisals for speaking in recent months of other residents who believe they value money for the safety of others. Some decided to form the website OpenKauai.com as a way to mobilize and raise concerns. ON Rally held last month brought out 200 people to support the reopening to avoid further economic troubles.
Depending on tourism, Kauai lost 7,500 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Solidago / Getty Images / iStockphoto
A local business owner who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of setbacks in the community said the group had hoped to get a direct line to Kauai Mayor Kawakami, although many had viewed him with skepticism since October. They later added that they understood the reasons for those who opposed resuming the Safe Travels program, be it safety or the idyllic conditions with no tourists.
According to this business owner, those who opposed re-entry were financially stable enough to hold those views.
“We knew people [were] I’ll be frustrated, ”Kawakami told SFGATE when asked if he would like to get out of the Safe Travels program. “People like to blame it [the government]You will blame me. I said that’s how it should be. I’d rather have them point their frustrations and guilt on me than have the community turn against each other. “
He added that a large part of his response to prioritizing health and safety was due to culture. He stated that the kupuna (elderly) population are viewed as living treasures, but they are most at risk from COVID-19. “We’re still a culture where when we run into a challenge, even if I run into one as a mayor, I run to the elders in different parishes for advice on how to deal with situations. “
“When we looked at who were the most at risk in this pandemic,” he added, “it became clear that our native Hawaiian populations were the most vulnerable, with the minorities being the most at risk.”
Kawakami also stated that when the pandemic began, Kauai did not have the resources to deal with COVID-19. The district only had 11 intensive care beds for its nearly 65,000 residents. After signing out of the Safe Travels program last year, he said the government, medical and tourism industries have put a lot of hard work over the months to lay a decent foundation for them to be on the road to recovery could be instead of another shutdown.
For additional safety measures, Kauai County and the Kauai District Health Department have teamed up to offer free COVID-19 testing on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Ten hotels have also committed to support post-travel testing for their guests.
Despite the reopening, some business owners have expressed concern that growing sentiment against tourists will discourage potential travelers from coming to the island. They hoped the mayor would take the lead to reduce the anti-tourist feeling that comes from it the island’s problems with overtourism.
However, according to Kawakami, it is easier to blame tourists for the failure of state infrastructure and the lack of affordable housing to handle the influx of both the population and tourists, but it is not their fault.
Ishii also said it was worthless to chastise the tourists, especially now that they are just trying to escape a terrible reality on the mainland for a break.
He said that when it comes to dealing with tourists, “the purity of freedom is that you show respect and respect comes back to you.” For him, the concept of “aloha” is everywhere, and those in Hawaii instill it in those who visit.
