LIHU‘E — In a public-service announcement Thursday, Mayor Derek Kawakami, alongside health-care providers and community leaders, called on residents to reduce travel and gatherings in the face of the most-recent spike in COVID cases, to avoid a more-severe shutdown.
LIHU‘E — In a public-service announcement Thursday, Mayor Derek Kawakami, alongside health-care providers and community leaders, called on residents to reduce travel and gatherings in the face of the most-recent spike in COVID cases, to avoid a more-severe shutdown.
“We know that any restriction comes with a consequence,” Kawakami said. “It forces businesses to take a hit and threatens our workforce who are still struggling to bounce back. It creates a stress in our homes that can directly impact mental health, domestic violence and child abuse. No matter what restriction — seemingly big or small — it will impact our quality of life.”
Kawakami said the county is at a” critical juncture” as case rates surge, but did not commit to implementing new restrictions outside of the state’s current masking mandates and reduced numbers for social gatherings.
“Frankly, there’s no single government restriction that is going to work,” Kawakami said. “We are in an all-or-nothing fight. The only logical restriction moving forward would be a lockdown.”
State Department of Health Kaua‘i District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman reiterated that cases on Kaua‘i are “an all-time high and rising in spite of all we are doing together as a community.”
“There were two Kaua‘i COVID deaths in the first 16 months of the pandemic,” Berreman. “There have been three Kaua‘i deaths so far this month. We know that rising cases will be followed by rising hospitalizations and, unfortunately, more deaths.”
Outside of travel and gathering, Kawakami called on mask-wearing, staying home when sick and getting a vaccine.
“Delta is different. It is more contagious. It is more dangerous, and it is more of a threat than the virus we knew last year,” Kawakami said.
“But we can win this fight by working together.”
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Sabrina Bodon, editor, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
I hope not. Another lockdown. But to keep up the checkpoints everywhere.
I hope their not another shut down
The county needs to stop the big gatherings at the beach parks and stop those residents who choose to quarantine after travel but don’t because they know the national guard isn’t checking on people.
Tourists can travel here and that is okay. But residents aren’t suppose to travel. What kind of logic is that? Covid has shown the world that politicians are just stupid.
The National Guard checked on residents during quarantine. Day 7 for me.
Woot. Woot! Common sense. Yay.
The rise in cases has already slowed. Any restrictions made now would take effect as the virus is on its way out the door.
Hold the line. This thing comes in waves, and this wave is already peaking. (If it hasn’t already.)
We’re gonna be okay. Stay strong, Kauai.
Derek, if you do it by numbers the safest people to hang out with are tourists. If you do ANYTHING it should start with testing. Of course the only way to people tested is making it mandatory to travel. Sorry to say Kauai residents do not behave.
This is coersion, trying to get people to do things/not do things out of fear, we are now being threatened with an unforseen future, another lock down are you kidding me? I’m tired of them acting like this illness gives them the right to dictate what we do, this is completely unconstitutional, the virus has a 99% recovery rate, this has got to stop, we live in America
Yes its so unconstitutional to ask people to have common sense. Guess its hard when you have no common sense or basic math skills. Covid causes many other health complications other than death. But if we just ignore that fact and say only 1% of people will die, that’s 700 people dead just on Kauai going off of our 70k population.
But sure, your right to go to vegas and sit really close to people is much more important than that.
You ain’t seen nothin yet, just wait until after Labor Day travels! Our elected leaders have let us down, the simplest thing to do would have been to re implement travel testing weeks ago, by now we would have been getting the explosion of covid under control, but because our leaders are sitting on their hands we are in the deep stuff now with no way out. Even the wimpy so called “safe” travels program would have helped. Feel sorry for the businesses who might have had a chance to prosper if travel testing had been re implemented.
Doug the plug. It’s as if your dreams are coming true before your eyes. You love the lockdowns and signaling how virtuous you are. Essentially begging for worse case scenarios. It’s grotesque
Good. Don’t punish us that have gotten vaccinated, wear masks when required and keep our distance from others.
GEEE, I wonder why the highest vaccinated populations are having huge surges in Covid?!
It must be the few selfish ‘anti-vax’ people and all their selfish personal medical choices! Shame on them, they should be punished, cancelled, fired, made a second class citizen with no rights to fly or shop so we can make a point that taking your medical decisions into your hands is UNACCEPTABLE. My body my choice only applies to abortion you silly people, not vaccines!
Cite your sources?
Vaccines and lockdowns have created this “delta” variant. It is called evolutionary and selective pressure. Here’s an example of this effect –
“Immunization is also making once-rare or nonexistent genetic variants of pathogens more prevalent, presumably because vaccine-primed antibodies can’t as easily recognize and attack shape-shifters that look different from vaccine strains.”
“Evolutionary biologists aren’t surprised that this is happening. A vaccine is a novel selection pressure placed on a pathogen, and if the vaccine does not eradicate its target completely, then the remaining pathogens with the greatest fitness — those able to survive, somehow, in an immunized world — will become more common.”
We know that these vaccines don’t eradicate the target – because it is published (but not well known or recognized) that these vaccines only diminish symptoms, they do not prevent one from getting the virus.
every us citizen has a choice to be vaccinated or not. if you choose not to be vaccinated its only right that anyone that is vaccinated and needs medical attention is first in line . also, insurance companies shouldn’t pick up any charges for those who aren’t vaccinated.if your employer requires vaccinated employees and you refuse well no unemployment.
Please don’t do another shut down
Please don’t do another shut down punish shopping mall they came long way safe
NO MORE LOCKDOWNS EVER!!!
WE HAVE ALLOWED GOVERNMENT TO TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS OVER A FALSE THREAT.
The only way out of this is to get vaccinated and wear a mask. And this has the least effect on our economy. I’m all for vaccine passports; this way, businesses can stay open.
Lockdowns do nothing. The variant is no more dangerous , just more contagious. We have wonderful medicines available. The only way to get through this is natural immunity, as with all viruses. With a 99.97% survival rate, this is the way to go. Stop the hysteria and quit trying to control our every day and ruining our lives and livelihoods.