Mayor slashes capacity at large indoor events, but says ‘good decisions’ key to curbing spread

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi slashed capacity at large indoor events Wednesday amid an ongoing COVID surge while also once again stressing the need for personal responsibility and underscoring the importance of getting a booster shot.

“There’s no magic to this thing and it’s not all that complicated. Make good decisions. Get a booster,” Blangiardi said, in a morning news conference during which he also urged people not to get caught up in the “shock and awe” of skyrocketing COVID infections because Omicron is different than Delta.

The mayor and several health care leaders who joined him noted that Omicron produces milder symptoms for many, though it can still be very dangerous to those who are unvaccinated.

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At the same time, officials said COVID hospitalizations are continuing to grow even as hospitals themselves are seeing severe worker shortages because of the Omicron surge.

As of Wednesday, there were 226 people with COVID in Hawaii hospitals; approximately 20% of those are in the hospital for other reasons than the virus such as scheduled surgeries or trauma.

“Our concern is still the very high number of infections and positivity rate,” said Hilton Raethel, head of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, at the news conference.

“It’s an evolving situation and we’re dealing with a very different surge with Omicron.”

He said it's more important to focus on COVID hospitalizations than on infection rates.

That’s because far fewer people who are contracting the new variant need hospitalization compared to Delta. And those who are in the hospital with COVID are less likely to get into the ICU.

Raethel said about 10% of COVID hospitalizations now involve an ICU stay. That compares to 20 to 30% during the Delta surge.

In large part because Omicron is less virulent than Delta, Blangiardi said last week that he has no plans to institute new restrictions. But he reversed course, he said, because hospitalizations are going up.

Under the new capacity rule, effective Monday, all large indoor events with more than 1,000 people will be capped at 50% capacity. So if a venue can hold 2,000, the capacity at that event would be 1,000.

The restriction comes as Oahu continues to see daily quadruple-digit increases in new infections.

There were 2,611 new COVID cases statewide Wednesday, including 1,934 on Oahu.

Blangiardi and several health care leaders who joined him urged residents to focus more on hospitalizations than on the number of COVID infections because Omicron is highly transmissible and such a wide swath of the population is fully vaccinated.

They also said the best way to avoid severe illness is to get a booster shot.

“We want to ensure that you get that shot in your arm and that your family has that shot in their arms,” said Jill Hoggard-Green, president and CEO of the Queen’s Health Systems.

“That’s the single most important thing you can do.”

Ray Vara, president and CEO of Hawaii Pacific Health, added Hawaii and the rest of the nation needs to begin learning how to “live alongside COVID,” noting that it could soon become endemic like the seasonal flu. Experts are not yet sure whether Omicron will make COVID endemic.

“We need to be less focused on whether or not we’re going to institute a policy or not,” Vera said.

This story will be updated.

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