Lieutenant Governor: Honolulu could be heading for another shut-down as early as this week

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Lieutenant Governor Josh Green said Honolulu is in a place where a tough decision has to be made after the Department of Health announced there were another 284 positive cases of coronavirus on Saturday, Aug. 15.

While he knows another stay-at-home order would have economic repercussions, he said losing thousands of lives and turning sick patients away from hospitals would be much worse.

Cases of COVID-19 continue to soar in the triple digits the last two weeks, consistently surpassing the 200 mark in recent days.

Daily COVID-19 Cases:

• 8/15 – 284
• 8/14 – 233
• 8/13 – 355
• 8/12 – 202
• 8/11 – 118
• 8/10 – 140
• 8/9 – 152
• 8/8 – 231
• 8/7 – 201
• 8/6 – 152
• 8/5 – 173
• 8/4 – 144
• 8/3 – 207

Lt. Gov. Green said, if we don’t act now, the situation will spiral out of control.

“We’re going to quickly reach a threshold where we won’t be able to take care of our patients if we allow day-by-day the number to be over 250.”

At that rate, Lt. Gov. Green said the state would have 6,000 active cases within a month. The goal is to drop that number to under 100.

“The only way I envision getting our numbers under a hundred would be a stay-at-home order for 30 days,” Green explained.

He said that could happen as early as this week.

“That may be what we need from a healthcare standpoint and if the governor and mayor make that decision it will be to save lives.”

Not everyone is in favor of shutting down.

KHON2 asked, “What do you say to those that would say its an overreaction?”

“I’d say that I can’t allow 4,000 people to die on my watch. And that’s what would happen if we let COVID roll over Hawaii completely.”

The last thing he wants to have to do is turn someone away from the hospital who needs care because they don’t have any room available.

Lt. Gov. Green said there will likely be some stops and starts through the end of the year, or at least until there is a vaccine.