Updated: 4/23/20, 2:50 p.m.
The city and state Department of Health are sparring over Mayor Kirk Caldwell's plans to expand testing on Oahu through seven community health centers. The department warned the city in a letter that the tests the city plans to use at a cost of $2 million have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but the city says FDA approval is not required and that other jurisdictions, including the city of Los Angeles, have been using the tests with no concerns.
Because of the dispute, the city plans to pause the program before it moves ahead on a contract with Everlywell, a private medical testing company.
Caldwell has been pushing ahead with plans to lift restrictions on the city even while Gov. David Ige has said the state is not yet ready for a reopening.
The city has already announced plans to reopen city parks starting at 5 a.m. Saturday for exercise such as walking, jogging and bicycling. But basketball courts, playgrounds, Hanauma Bay, the rifle range and no-leash dog parks will remain close.
The mayor said said at his press conference today he is asking a city medical advisory panel to review further modifications to his stay-at-home order. Low-risk activities with modifications, such as open air religious gatherings that practice social distancing, could be among the changes.
Medium-risk businesses, such as shopping malls, might also be part of further relaxation of his order if they manage the number of people at their locations. Higher-risk business, such as restaurants, would need to put into place more modifications, and bars, where patrons might start out sitting at a distance but fail to keep a distance as they drink, would be more difficult, Caldwell said.
Where Hawaii stands
Four new coronavirus cases brings the state's total today to 596, according to the Department of Health's latest update. The number of deaths stands at 12.
Oahu case count is now 389, Maui County 112, Hawaii Island 68, and Kauai 21. No cases are pending determination of county and six were diagnosed out of state.
Earlier this week, the state reported two more coronavirus-related deaths. Both deaths involve men who were 65 years old or older. One, an Oahu man with underlying health conditions, was hospitalized in late March. Although he appeared to get better and was discharged, his health declined and he passed away at home.
The second death is a Maui case that brings to two the number of fatalities related to Maui Memorial Medical Center. In the latest case, the man had underlying health conditions and had been at the hospital since late last year.
Maui Memorial has 36 staff and 20 patients under investigation as potentially associated with the hospital's cluster, the department said in a news release.
Health Director: Reopening close with safeguards in place
It was about a month ago that Gov. David Ige issued the state’s stay-at-home order to stop the spread of COVID-19. All but essential businesses shut down. But now state Health Director Bruce Anderson says Hawaii is getting close to reopening -- if it can put safeguards in place.
Last week, President Donald Trump issued guidelines for states to begin reopening. The governor said Hawaii wasn’t ready yet because it didn’t have a downward trend in new cases over a 14-day period.
Now Anderson is saying the health department thinks reopening is possible soon but he said it’s more about being prepared than about the numbers.
"If you have the testing capability, resilience in your hospital system, protective equipment so that you can deal with an outbreak that occurs -- that's really the key," he said. "I would check most of those boxes."
The hospital system has been "terrific" in terms of getting prepared, Anderson said, and the facilities are talking about resuming elective surgeries.
"We feel comfortable we can deal with the COVID cases along with everything else. So I think we're kind of mostly there."
Anderson says the department is planning for which businesses can reopen and under what conditions.
But he says there’s one other hurdle to reopening-- more surveillance testing in the community to detect the virus before it spreads.
He did not say when the details of the reopening plan would be issued, but that talks with the governor and county mayors are already underway.
--HPR's Ashley Mizuo
House expected vote to replenish small business funding
The U.S. House of Representatives today approved an additional $300 billion in funding to support small businesses around the country.
Already more than 11,000 Hawaii businesses have been approved for about $2 billion in emergency loans from the Payroll Protection Program.
The program was created to support businesses and nonprofits impacted by COVID-19. Congress initially provided $350 billion for the program but that was exhausted in just two weeks.
With the second round of funding, local firms that did not receive approval in time will now have another opportunity.
Jane Sawyer with the Small Business Administration says although the federal government stopped approving loans after the initial funding ran out, banks have still been processing applications from business owners.
"They’ve continued to review applications they received, but could not process quickly enough to make the first round. So they’ve been reviewing them and may have called for more documentation from borrowers that they needed, so that they’ll be ready to do the data input once everything opens up," she said.
Business owners who already received an SBA loan number from their bank were approved in time for the first round of funding. Employers who have not yet been approved should confirm their application's status with their lender.
The second round of funding is expected to be exhausted even faster.
--HPR's Ryan Finnerty
Labor department computer target of cyberattack
Just when the state labor department thought it was making progress in clearing a backlog of jobless claims, it got hit with a cyberattack.
Labor Director Scott Murakami says the state’s antiquated computer filled up with log-ins last week, further slowing the filing of claims. The department found evidence of bots and programming scripts left in the attack.
“Unfortunate thing about that, right, is that it really does hurt the community. There’s no reason why people need to do that. There are a lot of people who are trying to file," he said. "So we did collect forensic data and we did submit it to the attorney general to review to see if we can seek prosecution against people who are doing that, especially in the state’s critical time of need.”
The better news is that the state is setting up a large processing operation at the Hawaii Convention Center. Murakami says it should help reduce the long delays that applicants have experienced in filing and checking on jobless benefits.
It’s not a place to go to resolve your claim, however. You’ll still need to visit the labor department website or keep on calling. There’s still no workaround for that.
--HPR's Sandee Oshiro
Mayor: Merriman's restaurant in Kapalua had cases in March
Three Merriman's restaurant employees in Kapalua tested positive last month, Maui Mayor Michael Victorino said in a statement yesterday.
He said the restaurant came forward regarding the workers testing positive, did not allow them to work while sick or symptomatic and closed the restaurant while awaiting the test results. "When businesses follow best practices during this pandemic, they protect our entire Maui County community," the mayor said.
Christina Schenk, CEO of Merriman's Restaurants, said the company took a proactive approach in instructing all employees not to go into work while sick during the pandemic. Three employees called in sick on March 12, 13 and 16 and the decision was made to close the restaurant to full service. Takeout service was closed a few days later.
"Throughout this period of time, we aggressively sanitized all high-touch points, including menus, tables and door knobs," Schenk said. The employees' test results came back on March 27, but by then they had recocovered; none required hospitalization, she said.
It was not immediately clear why the cases were not disclosed earlier.
Disclosure: Merriman's has been an underwriter of HPR.
--HPR News Staff
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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