Gov. David Ige said Monday he doesn’t think Hawaii’s current economic crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to civil unrest.
Ige was responding to a question in an afternoon press conference after Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, the governor’s incident commander for coronavirus response, warned the House Select Committee on COVID-19 that rioting could occur if steps aren’t taken to improve the economy.
“If we let the economy go the way it’s going, I feel there will be significant civil unrest that could lead to civil disobedience and, worst case, civil disturbance and rioting,” Hara told the lawmakers.
The governor said Hara, who is also the state’s adjutant general in charge of the Hawaii National Guard, “is always planning for the worst-case scenario.”
“I do not believe … that we would get to civil unrest here in our community, just judging by the public’s response to the (emergency) mandates and, more importantly, everyone doing their part — taking responsibility, social distancing and really helping us flatten the curve,” Ige said.
Hara told committee members that “at some point, we need to accept risks” to open the economy and get people back to work “without exceeding the ICU and ventilator capacity” in the state’s hospitals.
More than a third of Hawaii’s workforce has been sidelined since Ige put a stay-at-home order in place March 25, shut down all but “essential businesses” and ordered restaurants to operate on a takeout and delivery-only basis.
That has been exacerbated by long delays in jobless claimants receiving unemployment benefits because of an obsolete computer system unable to process claims fast enough and overloaded phone banks set up for claimants to check on their status.
The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said Monday that between March 1 and Friday, 225,132 claims have been uploaded onto its mainframe computer. Of those, 152,745 have been processed and 78,019 are being processed.
DLIR said 111,149 claims, or 72.8% of those processed, have been paid and another 41,596 were denied.
Between the weeks ending March 7 and May 2, there have been 27,260 new jobless claims filed on the Big Island. The majority, 16,208, have come from Kona, which is more dependent on the visitor industry, while 11,052 are from Hilo.
Numerous claimants have told the Tribune-Herald that even after having their claim certified, they continue having problems filing their weekly certification, which must be done via an online portal and not in person or by drop box.
Senate Vice President Michelle Kidani, in a Zoom media conference on the day the state Legislature reconvened, called it “very upsetting that DLIR has had such a troubling time trying to get the unemployment checks out.”
“Because all the people who … are not, you know, receiving checks are not, of course, buying, and they’re not putting the money back into the economy,” Kidani said. “I know that it’s a challenge … because of the antiquated system. But I’ll tell you on Day One, the Legislature offered 40 of our employees, and it wasn’t until almost a month later until those employees were actually accepted and welcomed to help out.
“And this was coming right out of the governor’s office that they did not need our help.”
In addition, tourism to the islands and hotel occupancy rates have plummeted, both because of COVID-19 fears and a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine order placed on arriving air passengers from out of state.
According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, 854 people arrived Sunday in Hawaii, including 246 visitors and 334 residents. Normally, about 30,000 passengers arrive in Hawaii each day, including residents and visitors.
Of those air arrivals from out of state, 42 were in Kona. That total includes 20 residents, 17 visitors, three intended residents and two crew.
Ige said three things need to be in place before a wider opening of the economy can occur.
One is “a declining trend in the positive COVID-19 tests, and we’ve seen that,” Ige said.
The second indicator, the governor said, is making certain new coronavirus cases doesn’t exceed the capacity of Hawaii’s hospitals, especially intensive care units and ventilators.
“We are at 50% of the ICU units, below 50% in terms of hospital beds, as well as ventilators,” Ige said. “… We have seen what happens if the number of COVID cases overwhelms the health care system, when you look at New York and New Jersey and Michigan and those states. … And we want to make sure that we can take care of anyone who gets infected with COVID-19.”
The governor said the third factor is “robust testing and contact tracing.”
“We do have the capacity now to conduct 3,000 tests per day,” Ige said. “We are averaging about 400 to 500 right now. … We do have a plan to expand, should the number of cases grow to exceed even a thousand new per a day.”
There were two new COVID-19 cases reported Monday, an adult and a minor, both on Oahu, bringing the statewide number of cases to 634.
Hawaii County’s case count stands at 75, with 74 of those having been released from isolation.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.