Transforming change into progress
Last New Year’s Eve, when the clock struck midnight, Maui County citizens welcomed
2021 with fireworks, hope and optimism.
The new PfizerBioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had arrived in miraculous time. By early January, Hawaii had a priority system to reserve vaccines for essential healthcare workers and those over the age of 60. At first, the Hawaii Department of Health was unable to get enough vaccine to meet demand. When supplies ran short, my office was flooded with phone calls from frustrated citizens demanding more vaccine. Working with state DOH officials, I made sure Maui County got its fair share, and more.
The vaccine came too late to prevent a post-holiday cluster of 100+ COVID-19 cases at Kahului’s Harbor Lights condominiums. Yet, in true Maui style, residents and organizations stepped up to donate PPE, food and assistance for residents of the 350-unit complex.
By early March, Hawaii ranked among the nation’s most vaccinated states which helped to squelch Maui’s mini-surge until spring break started. At the time, the new B.1.429 variant accounted for 82 percent of COVID cases in California. By April, the “California variant” was Maui’s predominant strain, and it spread faster than a 2019 wildfire.
A perfect storm of cabin fever, pent-up travel demand, cheap airfares and the closure of most other destinations, sent a tsunami of tourism our way. After a year of having Maui County to ourselves, we were suddenly faced with congested roads, crowded beaches, and packed restaurants.
Some badly behaved visitors defied public health rules and got sassy with essential workers and local residents. Countless people begged me to close the airport, not knowing that only the Federal Aviation Administration can do that. In frustration, I personally asked airlines executives to voluntarily reduce airlift to Maui, to no avail.
Concerned that travelers could be infected after passing pre-travel testing, I initiated a post-arrival test on May 4 for all passengers arriving at Kahului Airport. After testing 92,963 passengers, just five COVID-19 cases were confirmed, so we ended the program on May 31. Mainland travelers had a positivity rate of 0.054 percent, demonstrating that nearly all transmission on island came from community spread. With more shots in arms, the surge subsided so by mid-summer, Maui County’s daily COVID-19 case count was consistently in the single digits
This allowed us to cautiously restart swim meets, end the pool reservation requirement, reopen the War Memorial Stadium track and gradually extend hours for residents. I am also proud to have been able to grant nearly $20 million to 5,670 County households to help them catch up on overdue rent and utility payments.
In June, the CDC warned of a new, more contagious variant called delta. Anticipating higher demand for testing, we added more free testing and vaccination clinics. By August, Hawaii hit an alarming recordbreaking day of 1,167 new cases. Concerned about the imminent start of a new school year, I asked the state Department of Education to consider postponing a return to classroom learning, but my request was denied.
By mid-September, we instituted new “Safer Outside” Public Health Rules to minimize indoor activities. Again, we saw the infection rate decline. In October, the Maui County Council joined my office in hosting our second Halloween Adventure Drive-Thru for families, happily unaware of the unwelcome news to come.
On the day after Thanksgiving, we first heard about a new omicron variant, three times more contagious than delta, that was identified in South Africa. Hawaii’s first case was detected on Dec. 2, and it spread so rapidly the DOH reported 3,290 new cases in Hawaii on New Year’s Eve. Maui County ended 2021 with 13,251 confirmed cases and 106 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began.
After two years of battling this pandemic, everyone is experiencing degrees of COVID-19 burnout. It’s understandable why so many feel drained, frustrated, angry and discouraged after this long cycle of hope followed by disappointment. Yet I believe Maui County is on the brink of a better, brighter future. I will share more about that in my next column.