Hawai'i COVID-19 Joint Information Center's daily news digest for Thursday, July 16, 2020

Department of Health Update

19 Additional Positive COVID-19 Cases

Oahu clusters highlight community spread

and social gatherings

Community coronavirus spread, particularly on O‘ahu, continues to be responsible for the majority of new COVID-19 cases. Many cases have been linked to social gatherings where facemasks and physical distancing was not consistently used. Of the 19 positive cases being reported today by DOH, 16 are on O‘ahu and island of diagnosis for the remaining three (3) remains under investigation. As of today, there has been a cumulative total of 1,311 cases diagnosed in Hawai‘i since late February. Health experts remind everyone that personal responsibility is key toward preventing community-spread, meaning physical distancing, mask-wearing, handwashing, and staying home when sick.

Hawaiicovid19.com

For more tables, charts and visualizations visit the DOH Disease Outbreak Control Division: https://health.hawaii.gov/coronavirusdisease2019/what-you-should-know/current-situation-in-hawaii

Department of Transportation:

Passenger Screening Technology Selected

for Hawai‘i’s Airports

DOT has selected NEC Corporation, NEC Corporation of America and their partner, Infrared Cameras Inc., to provide thermal temperature screening and facial imaging technology at Hawaiʻi’s public airports to help protect the community and identify passengers with a potentially elevated body temperature. The company’s combined resources to submit a unified proposal for the project.

“Taking these steps to implement the technology at our airports shows our commitment to providing preventative measures against COVID-19 for the community,” said Gov. David Ige. “We recognize that temperature screening won’t catch every infected passenger, but it is an available tool that can be implemented and combined with the additional measures the State is providing to help prevent the spread of this virus, while helping to rebuild the economy.”

“We are honored to become a part of this significant project for Hawaiʻi towards the revival of tourism and businesses in the state,” said Toshifumi Yoshizaki, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation. “We believe NEC’s technology will help to ensure the safety and health of visitors and residents of Hawaiʻi against COVID-19, and our team will make every effort to ensure the success of this public and private joint project together with all of the partner companies.”

See complete details here: https://hidot.hawaii.gov/blog/2020/07/16/hdot-selects-passenger-screening-technology-provider-for-hawaiis-airports/

Hawai‘i Tourism Authority:

2,287 Passengers Arrive on Wednesday

Yesterday, a total of 2,287 people arrived in Hawai‘i including 498 visitors and 825 returning residents. There was a total of 24 arriving flights. This table shows the number of people who arrived by air from out of state yesterday but does not show interisland travel.

Department of Labor and Industrial Relations:

Hawai‘i’s Unemployment Rate at 13.9% in June

DLIR announced Thursday that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June was 13.9-percent compared to the revised rate of 23.5-percent in May. Statewide, 527,600 were employed and 85,200 unemployed in June for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 612,800. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 11.1-percent in June, down from 13.3-percent in May. DLIR would like to note that the COVID-19 Pandemic is impacting the data derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the survey used to produce the unemployment rate, also known as the household survey. In the household survey, individuals are classified as employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force based on questions about their activities during the survey reference week (June 7th through June 13th). COVID-19-related issues are affecting the counts and the official level of unemployment published for the State of Hawai‘i by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The major discrepancy, with the exception of those unemployed on temporary layoff, is that individuals without a job who are not actively seeking work, particularly during this time of government-ordered business closures and social distancing requirements, are classified as not in the labor force in the CPS. The CPS misclassification issue of workers who were recorded as “employed but not at work” instead of “unemployed on temporary layoff” is a contributing factor and the low response rate for the CPS during the pandemic is possibly another factor.

State Issued $2.2 Billion in Benefits Since March 1

DLIR also announced today updated employment insurance claims information, including paying $2,189,522,737 since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 1, 2020. DLIR Deputy Director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio said, “91-percent of the valid unemployment insurance claims that have come in since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have been processed and paid out. Although it appears that the number of claims requiring departmental action is stable, we are still receiving nearly 8,000 new claims a week.”