HONOLULU (KHON2) – The state is slowly moving forward in its vaccination effort and reaching Tier 5 with fewer travel restrictions but it’s still unknown when the state will reach 60%.
During a press conference on Monday, Governor David Ige said, “the number of vaccines administered in the last week is significantly lower than the number of vaccinations administered two weeks ago.”
On Saturday, the health department said preliminary numbers showed the #higotvaccinated incentive campaign, outreach, and increased access to vaccines had led to vaccination numbers holding steady the last two weeks.
Since the campaign began on June 4, the state went from 53% fully vaccinated to 57% on Monday, June 21, with more prizes being added to the list including roundtrip tickets on American Airlines, a Kahala Resort staycation, Wet n Wild tickets, and thousands of dollars in gift cards.
The state said it started to see a decline in vaccine counts back in April. The state has seen vaccination numbers level off since the campaign began with about 40,000 to 42,000 vaccines being administered weekly.
On Monday, Governor Ige said he would work with the health department and come up with a date to announce Tier 5 and allowing vaccinated mainland travelers into the state bypassing a pre-test and quarantine.
State health officials are encouraging people to get vaccinated as the Delta variant spreads across the United States. Here in Hawaii, the health department says there have been no COVID-19 deaths in fully vaccinated residents and hospitalizations have remained steady.
“Fully vaccinated people have not died from COVID-19, either,” explained Lt. Governor Josh Green. “So there’s many reasons to get vaccinated, and we’re coming toward the end of the pandemic.”
Kahuku, North Shore, Kapolei, Waianae, Haiku Maui and the Naalehu and Ocean View portions of the Big Island have the lowest vaccination rates in the state with less than 35% vaccinated.
