Harry Kim Opts out of pre-travel test program

[SBH]

Kim wants to kill a fly with a hammer.

[ChunksterK]

Today was the worst day so far in the pandemic for new cases (45) on Hawaii Island:

https://bigislandnow.com/2020/10/09/reco...ig-island/

From the piece:

The county reported that “many” of the newly identified cases are linked to active clusters, namely those at Life Care Center in Hilo and the University of Nations in Kailua-Kona.


I wish they would clarify what "many" means.  Is it "most" or just "more than a few?"  This is not likely to make Harry Kim want to admit tourists, and that fly SBH mentioned is starting to look like a horsefly.  Is there any hard data or valid comparative numbers that would indicate the likelihood of cases spiking due to visitors?  How has Alaska's visitor testing program worked out?

[kalakoa]

Hard to measure risk when your only statistics are "in the same zipcode as".

There's a CivilBeat piece about how Alaska's program went.

[Welch]

With our arrival just a week away to look for a new home we've considered every bit of available information, calling the mayor's office where a canned response was read, none of which offered clarity. Evidently, there will be more consideration of the situation "over the weekend".

Our current 30 day rental (as of 26 Sept) is no longer considered "legal" for quarantine so we're between a rock and a hard place.
I'll assume a 72 hour quarantine between arrival, second testing (not sure how you're supposed to get to the second test without exposure) and the result would also fall into this category.

If we cancel before there's final word about how this is all going to happen from Harry Kim we forfeit way too much money.

Once there's a "plan" in place if it does involve quarantine, I hope to be able to use that as a valid reason to be refunded and try again in January when things are (maybe) a little more under control.

I can't wait to tell our realtor for our current home we need to put the brakes on selling. Sigh.

This is way, way too stressful. I'm not a fan of 2020.

[randomq]

No stats on whether these cases are tourism or community spread? Here we are arguing over the tourists and it might just be us reinfecting ourselves!

[ChunksterK]

"Here we are arguing over the tourists and it might just be us reinfecting ourselves!" - randomq

Given that there basically aren't any tourists on the Big Island right now, I'm guessing that we are mostly reinfecting ourselves. They've made a big deal out of that cluster at the University of the Nations, but weren't any incoming students supposed to have been quarantined? My whole point is that the state's statistics don't always add up and don't really tell us what we need to know to have an informed opinion about tourism. As kalakoa points out, the zip code reporting doesn't really cut it, and they've even admitted that those numbers aren't always accurate.

And don't start me on the fact that Civil Defense and the Big Island hospitals have reported 36 deaths here so far while the state has only managed to count 15. Yet somehow, Ige and his cohort expect us to have confidence in their ability to manage an influx of tourists. Accurate numbers would be a start on that.
'

[Welch]

I don't want to see the virus spread in Hawai'i where ever it originates. My issue is the lack of thoughtful planning. It's understood that even with that there are unknowns that must be considered, but set expectations and at least atempt to follow protocol.
Not everyone who is coming to Hawai'i is doing so for the same reason i.e tourism. Penalizing those arriving on island for following rules that are constantly changing isn't OK.

[Obie]

By locking the state down back when we didn't have any cases the idiots in charge just pushed the peak back to now.
The spread in nursing homes is something that occurred months ago on the mainland.
We have a state senator and a mayoral candidate who contributed to community spread.
The people working in these nursing homes are carrying it and spreading it not tourists.

[SBH]

“ Mayor Harry Kim said this afternoon he’s reached agreement with Gov. David Ige on a deal that would allow the county to administer a rapid-response COVID-19 antigen test to arriving out-of-state passengers at Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole starting Thursday.”

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/202...travelers/

What about Hilo? 

[Welch]

I just saw this. It sounds like chaos in the making but it will get us there.
Evidently, currently, there are no non-stop trans-Pacific flights into Hilo negating the need for the second test there.