University of Hawaii reinstates indoor masking

Amid the statewide COVID-19 surge, Hawaii’s public schools have reported a ninth straight week of increases in campus cases, and the University of Hawaii, starting today, is reinstating an indoor mask requirement across its 10- campus system.

A statement Tuesday from UH officials said that “reinstatement of the comprehensive indoor mask requirement will help prevent further spread of the COVID-19 virus and better protect the health of students and employees, as every county in the state but one is currently assessed to have a ‘high’ level of COVID- 19 community transmission by the CDC.”

Only Hawaii County was placed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “medium” level.

UH officials also noted that the CDC on Tuesday ranked Hawaii as having the fourth-highest case rate in the nation, with an average seven-day rate of 495.9 cases per 100,000 people.

The only exceptions to the UH systemwide indoor mask requirement are when working alone or separated from others by 6 feet or more. The UH indoor mask requirement will be evaluated when the level of COVID-19 transmission in the state decreases, the university statement said.

Members of the UH community are encouraged to monitor their hawaii.edu email and UHNews.org for updates.

Meanwhile, Hawaii’s 257 regular public schools will continue to require universal indoor masking during summer programs. No decision on masking has been issued yet for the 2022-23 school year, which begins July 26 for teachers and Aug. 1 for students.

Some community members have testified angrily at recent state Board of Education meetings over the public schools’ continued indoor masking.

But State Department of Education officials have said all COVID-19 measures have been made in close consultation with the state Department of Health and are necessary to keep schools open and maximize in-person learning.

Across the public schools, weekly case totals have climbed steadily, and the current numbers far exceed those seen during the delta variant surge last summer, according to data on the DOE website.

The data also shows that recent counts are lower than those during the omicron variant surge.

In the first week after spring break, March 21-27, the public schools reported 110 cases. A month later, April 18-24, the public schools reported 468 cases. And last week, May 16-22, the public schools reported 1,517 cases.

“School case counts have increased for the ninth-straight week since spring break, but are still a fraction of the levels seen during the omicron variant. The rate of increase from week to week appears to be slowing,” Nanea Kalani, DOE communications director, said in an email response to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser request for comment.