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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/07/hawaii-relaxes-outdoor-mask-rules-urges-vaccines-for-schools/" target="_self">Hawaii Relaxes Outdoor Mask Rules, Urges Vaccines For Schools</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Tue, 27 Jul 2021 00:24:28 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('In updated guidance to schools released Monday, the Hawaii Department of Health urged all eligible students and staff to get COVID-19 vaccinations as a key factor to safely reopening schools for in-person instruction next week. Education officials are moving forward with plans to bring kids back to classrooms despite a recent surge in coronavirus cases, largely driven by the highly contagious delta variant. The new guidelines also relaxed requirements to wear face masks in most outdoor spaces for students and staff unless in crowded settings or activities that require close contact, but continued to mandate them indoors except when eating and drinking, in line with general statewide rules. The update comes as Hawaii public schools prepare to welcome back about 160,000 students to campuses on Aug. 3, with many private schools expected to follow suit later in the month. The state health guidance for schools comes about a week before the new school year begins on August 3 for DOE campuses. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021 Vaccines are only available for children who are at least 12 years old, but the 24-page document, which was last updated in May, called them “the most important core essential strategy” for reopening. It also stressed the need for hand washing, staying in small groups, staying home when sick and doing screening testing, especially for unvaccinated individuals participating in sports or extracurricular activity, to help prevent the spread of the virus. Acting state epidemiologist Sarah Kemble said the guidelines were premised on the understanding of negative long-term health impacts of kids not being in school and a “recognition that the science that has emerged around mitigation strategies has grown.” “The emphasis is that schools have many options for layered mitigation strategies to maximize safety for full in-person learning,” she told reporters on Monday. “The goal is to move back to the in-person model.” The DOH also said schools should implement physical distancing “to the extent possible” without prohibiting any in-person instruction should the recommendations not be met. The department cited new studies from the previous school year showing “low COVID-19 transmission levels” among students maintaining less than 6 feet of distance from others. Still, the current recommendation is to try to keep students at least 3 feet apart from one another in classrooms and at least 6 feet of distance between students and staff. When that’s not possible, schools should implement “additional layered mitigation strategies to the extent possible,” the guidebook says. The safety guidance follows a troubling new surge in coronavirus cases here and elsewhere in the U.S. spurred by the new delta variant. “The goal is to move back to the in-person model.” — Acting state epidemiologist Sarah Kemble But when asked about the variant’s impact on children under 12 who can’t get vaccinated yet, state health officials said the school setting still is not considered a widespread source of transmission when proper safety mechanisms are in place. “We know that children under 12 can be infected with COVID-19 and are able to transmit COVID-19, though most risk of transmission comes from unvaccinated adults,” Kemble said. “I believe that having been on a campus, it has to do with how many layers of protection schools are doing. They’re not doing just one thing, they’re doing many things.” Another change from the last update was an emphasis on washing hands or regularly using hand sanitizer instead of strict rules for cleaning and disinfecting common surfaces. “In most situations, the risk of infection from touching surfaces is low,” the document says, adding that “cleaning once a day is usually enough to sufficiently remove potential virus that may be on surfaces.” It also removed the section on reopening thresholds — or considerations for schools as they weigh distance or in-person learning — reflecting a commitment to full in-person learning. Kemble said health officials anticipate some uptick in cases in schools as they reopen, but cases in the surrounding community also have to be monitored as part of any consideration of scaling back the in-person model. “If we see an increase in outbreaks in schools, where we suspect transmissions are happening in younger age groups, that would be a reason to take a step back,” she said. The new guidelines also took into consideration new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance released July 9. The CDC said vaccinated children could safely attend school without wearing masks, while unvaccinated children 2 and up should continue to do so. The American Academy for Pediatrics in its own reopening guidelines is urging universal masking regardless of vaccine status. Hawaii DOE said the indoor mask-wearing requirement will not be lifted. The post Hawaii Relaxes Outdoor Mask Rules, Urges Vaccines For Schools appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/07/hawaii-governor-considers-vaccine-requirement-for-state-workers/" target="_self">Hawaii Governor Considers Vaccine Requirement For State Workers</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Mon, 26 Jul 2021 23:26:15 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('Gov. David Ige says he is considering requiring state workers and government employees to get vaccinated as Hawaii enters its second week of daily, triple-digit COVID-19 cases. Ige’s statement on Monday during the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” program comes on the heels of a similar announcement from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is mandating government workers in the Golden State get vaccinated or be subject to regular COVID-19 testing. Whether government institutions and private companies can require workers to get vaccinated is still being debated. Gov. David Ige is considering requiring state workers to get vaccinated. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021 Ige said the state would prefer full authorization from the Food and Drug Administration before mandating the vaccine. The vaccines were approved under emergency use authorization to speed distribution. However, the governor said he is not confident the feds have a timeline for when full authorization might come. “We’ve been asking about what that timeline looks like and we really haven’t gotten a response that makes us feel comfortable,” Ige said. “So we are looking at what steps would be necessary to mandate that from employees ahead of FDA approval.” In December, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that employers could require coronavirus vaccinations for workers but also provided for exemptions for people claiming medical or religious reasons for not getting a shot. In addition to mandating vaccines, California is giving workers the option of getting weekly COVID-19 tests if they want to go to work. Ige noted that the cost of testing in Hawaii has dropped and there are more rapid testing options than there were at the outset of the pandemic. Ige also said he is also considering mandating workers at state jails and prisons to get vaccinated. Hawaii’s correctional facilities have been the site of severe outbreaks in the last year.  Conditions have gotten so bad that a federal judge on July 13 ordered the state Department of Public Safety to begin following its plan for coping with the pandemic. The University of Hawaii plans to lift a requirement for all students to get vaccinated after finding that 92% of students and 95% of faculty already got a COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, unvaccinated students will need to get COVID-19 tests weekly, UH President David Lassner announced Friday. “Unvaccinated students should be aware that they may be ineligible for some employment opportunities and may be prohibited from participation in certain face-to-face educational activities (e.g. clinical and field work), and may therefore be prevented from completing educational requirements,” Lassner wrote. “Students who desire a full campus experience should be vaccinated.” UH also rescinded a return-to-work policy and will keep in place telework options. Ige also said state health officials plan to use the availability of intensive care beds and ventilators to determine whether or not the state will reimplement any of the pandemic restrictions that went into effect last year. However, the governor declined to give a specific benchmark for when any restrictions might be reinstated. “There’s really no bright line,” Ige said. “I know I get asked that a lot.” Ige said that elective surgeries may be suspended to free up bed space if hospitals fill up again. Currently, 17 ICU beds in the state are occupied by COVID-19 patients while 11 ventilators are also being used by COVID-19 patients, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s COVID-19 dashboard. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has already said that Oahu will not impose new restrictions since close to 70% of the island’s residents are vaccinated. Ige is also confident that schools can safely reopen to in-person classes, saying that schools have mitigation plans in place and can summon contracted cleaning crews in the event a case is detected in schools. The post Hawaii Governor Considers Vaccine Requirement For State Workers appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/07/employees-at-a-honolulu-care-facility-have-a-choice-get-vaccinated-or-get-fired/" target="_self">The Choice For Workers At A Honolulu Care Facility — Get Vaccinated Or Get Fired</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Mon, 26 Jul 2021 10:01:51 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('With the coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of ending, a senior living center in Kapolei mandated that all its employees get a COVID-19 vaccine by August or face termination. That was bad news for Wendi Ortiz, certified nursing assistant at Ilima at Leihano, who is fiercely opposed to getting a shot but was denied a religious exemption. “I’ll be terminated on August 7 if I don’t get vaccinated,” Ortiz said, adding that she doesn’t plan to change her mind. “I’m frustrated and I’m very scared,” she said. “I don’t know where my funds are going to come from.” The health care industry is grappling with how to handle employees who refuse to get vaccinated as the daily number of infections swings back up to triple digits largely due to the highly contagious delta variant. Most of the new cases are among unvaccinated people. Ilima at Leimano senior living care home in Kapolei has mandated that all employees get the COVID-19 vaccine. Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021 Hawaii health care vaccination rates are far higher than the national averages, according to the Healthcare Association of Hawaii. Skilled nursing facilities and other long-term care facilities in Hawaii are vaccinating an average of 81% of their staff and 93% of their residents. The state’s main provider networks have so far declined to make it a condition of employment. Ilima at Leihano made the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory on May 20 but gave staff a grace period of nearly three months. In an email, the facility said it was an effort to create the “safest environment possible,” but also provided information for people to apply for vaccine exemptions. Ilima at Leihano executive director Mark Tsuda said it’s his moral and ethical responsibility to protect the residents, whose average age is over 86. “You know, it’s a choice to take the vaccination and work in the company, or to find employment elsewhere,” Tsuda said. Difficult Decision According to AARP, 80% of those who died from the coronavirus were at least 65 years old. However, another study from the organization found that Hawaii has very few nursing home resident fatalities due to COVID-19 and according to Tsuda, his facility has not had a single resident test positive for COVID-19. “A lot of that is due to our safety protocols as well as our surveillance testing,” Tsuda said. At the height of the pandemic, residents and staff were tested weekly for COVID-19 infections and are currently tested every other week. He said that most residents barely leave the facility and that the highest chance of the virus entering the community comes from employees that come and go every day. Tsuda said that most residents have been vaccinated and that the facility is very diligent with safety precautions. The issue is complicated by the fact that the three vaccines being used in the United States have received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. In December, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that employers could require coronavirus vaccinations for workers but also provided for exemptions for people claiming medical or religious reasons for not getting a shot. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are entitled to set a qualification standard that “an individual shall not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of individuals in the workplace.” If an employer denies a medical or religious exemption, it needs to prove the employee poses a direct threat at the work site and there is no way to provide a reasonable accommodation, such as remote work, that will eliminate or reduce the risk. “There are a handful of lawsuits now around the country in which employees are challenging, under various alleged constitutional and statutory rights — none of which I believe are going to succeed — the right of employers and the government to sanction mandatory vaccinations, said Jeff Portnoy, a Honolulu attorney with Cades Schutte. Religious And Medical Exemptions Ortiz and co-worker Merlie Pascual applied for religious exemptions in the first week of June. In order to get approval, they needed to write a description of their religious beliefs, obtain a letter from an outside party explaining why vaccination conflicts with their religion and submit the forms by a deadline. Pascual missed the deadline, and Ortiz’s request was reviewed and later denied in an email on July 16. The email explained that after a home office committee reviewed her request for exemption, it was still unable to grant her request and encouraged Ortiz to get fully vaccinated before Aug. 7 to continue her employment. “There’s no reason why I would need medicine like that to be put into my body when I have my Lord to protect me,” Ortiz said. Despite protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the ADA, Portnoy said the odds are strongly in favor of employers’ rights to terminate an employee, especially because the federal agency tasked with protecting employees sanctioned the decision. Certified nursing assistants help residents with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing and eating. Ortiz said that despite working closely with patients, she does not feel that she is putting them at risk, especially when all CNAs are required to wear masks and take bi-weekly COVID-19 tests. “The older people are vaccinated, so they shouldn’t have to worry about unvaccinated people,” she said. Ortiz says her main purpose in life has been taking care of others. After high school, she became a caregiver for her grandmother and aunt and babysat her sister’s child. Following graduation, she worked as a teacher’s aide for children ages 2 to 5 and in 2019, she became a CNA. At first she thought finding work elsewhere wouldn’t be difficult. But she has run into vaccine requirements at other facilities. Ortiz is not an anomaly within the health care sector. A recent data analysis from WebMD and Medscape Medical News found that 1 in 4 hospital workers have not received a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Hilton Raethel of Healthcare Association of Hawaii says his organization strongly encourages everyone to get vaccinated but isn’t yet making it mandatory. Courtesy Healthcare Association of Hawaii Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, said the organization strongly encourages everyone to get vaccinated but has avoided a mandate for two main reasons: The vaccine has yet to get full authorization from the FDA and fears of labor shortages. “We’re actually fairly confident that once the vaccines receive FDA approval, that there will be much stronger support for mandates from health care organizations,” he said. President Joe Biden said last week that the FDA may fully approve the vaccines as early as this fall, although he stressed the need to follow proper scientific procedures. Raethel also cautioned that the loss of staff from a mandate could have a negative impact on hospitals and facilities. “It’s very, very concerning to us when 97% to 98% of the infections and hospitalizations right now are preventable,” Raethel said. The Queen’s Medical Center and Hawaii Pacific Health also said they don’t require vaccinations for employees. “With more to learn about how the COVID-19 vaccine will be part of our regular health care needs moving forward, such as the need for booster shots or whether we will need it annually like the flu shot, we believe more information is needed before any decision is made about it being a requirement for staff,” HPH said in an email. It added that 84% of its employees have been vaccinated despite the lack of a mandate. The dilemma extends to all work places. Lt. Gov. Josh Green said Friday that the state has no plans to issue a mandate. “I have not talked about being punitive in any way because I believe we should all get there together of our own free will,” Green said in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight” program. The post The Choice For Workers At A Honolulu Care Facility — Get Vaccinated Or Get Fired appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/07/world-class-waves-could-propel-olympic-surfing-debut/" target="_self">World-Class Waves Could Propel Olympic Surfing Debut</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Mon, 26 Jul 2021 10:01:40 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('For the first time, surfing is on the Olympic stage. The surfing event will last for three days and has to run within the dates Sunday, when the first event was held, to August 1. The reason for this window? Not all waves are created equal, and organizers and surfers will wait for the best day full of the best waves to hold the competition. As a recreational surfer and physical oceanographer, I spend a lot of time thinking about waves. But for many people, this year’s Olympics will be their first time watching the sport. They might be wondering: What generates the waves that surfers will ride at the Olympics? Where do the waves come from? And why will the new Olympians be surfing at Tsurigasaki Beach? Winds create waves that organize into evenly spaced swells before breaking on shore. Jon Bowen/Creative Commons/2021 Wind Creates Waves Think for a few seconds about what happens when you throw a stone into a serene pond. It creates a ring of waves – depressions and elevations of the water’s surface – that spread out from the center. Waves in the ocean act similarly by propagating outward from where they are generated. The key difference is that the vast majority of ocean waves are formed by wind. As the wind blows over the surface of the water, some of the energy of the wind is transferred into the water, creating waves. The biggest and most powerful wind-generated waves are produced by strong storms that blow for a sustained period of time over a large area of the ocean. The waves within a storm are usually messy and chaotic, but as they move away from the storm they grow more organized as faster waves outrun slower waves. This organization of the waves creates “swell,” or regularly spaced lines of waves. Seafloors Break Waves As waves travel across the ocean, they don’t actually bring water with them – a wave from a storm 1,000 miles away isn’t made of water from 1,000 miles away. Waves are actually just energy moving from water molecule to water molecule. This energy doesn’t just move through the top layer of the ocean, either. Ocean waves extend far below the surface, sometimes as deep as 500 feet. When waves move into shallower water close to shore, they start to “feel” the seafloor as it pulls and drags on them, slowing them down. As seafloor gets shallower, it pushes upwards against the bottoms of waves, but the energy has to go somewhere, so the waves grow taller. As the waves move toward shore, the water gets ever more shallow and the waves keep growing until, eventually, they become unstable and the wave “breaks” as the crest spills over toward shore. It is only here, after a wave has traveled perhaps thousands of miles, that the surfing starts. To catch a wave, a surfer paddles toward shore until their speed matches that of the wave. As soon as the wave starts to break, the surfer stands up quickly and maneuvers the surf board with their feet and weight to ride the wave just ahead of the crashing lip. This map shows the tracks of all the tropical storms, typhoons and hurricanes that formed from 1945 to 2006. Note the hot spot of frequent, powerful storms south of Japan. Waves At The Olympics The waves that surfers ride at Tsurigasaki Beach for the Olympics will be generated from one of two different types of wind: trade winds and typhoons. Trade winds consistently blow around 11 to 15 mph in a band that stretches across the Pacific Ocean from approximately Mexico to the Philippines. These winds generate small “trade swells” that propagate northward toward the east coast of Japan and are usually a few feet tall when they arrive. But if the surfers and spectators are lucky, a typhoon with wind speeds greater than 74 mph will be supplying powerful waves for the event. Typhoons are what hurricanes are called in much of Asia and are common near Japan and China during summer and fall. Winds in a typhoon are much stronger than the trade winds. Therefore, they generate much bigger waves. Olympic surfers obviously do not want a typhoon to hit Japan. What they want is for a typhoon to form about 500 to 1,500 miles (800 to 2,400 km) to the southeast of Japan and generate big waves that will hit the coast of Japan after traveling across the ocean for one to three days. Surfers will be competing at Tsurigasaki Beach on the east coast of Japan, where the waves break on sandbars. Pullwell/WikimediaCommons/2021 Based on the current weather and surf forecasts, it looks like just such a situation will happen. As of July 22, weather models are predicting that a tropical cyclone or typhoon will almost certainly develop to the southeast of Japan over the next few days, and the winds from this storm will send a powerful swell to the Olympics. Currently, models are predicting that the waves could be 7 feet at Tsurigasaki Beach, just in time for the surfing event to start. Once the swell from the trade winds or a far-off typhoon reaches Tsurigasaki Beach, it is the seafloor that will determine where the waves break. Tsurigasaki Beach is a “beach break,” which means that the seafloor is sand, rather than rocks or coral reef. There are a series of human-made rock walls, called groins, sticking out perpendicularly from the beach. These have been engineered to prevent sand from moving along the beach and are meant to slow erosion. These groins create shallow sandbars a few hundred yards from shore that incoming waves will break on. This is where the athletes will surf. When you tune in to watch the surfing competition at the Olympics, marvel at the amazing skills of elite surfers, but remember too the far-off storms and the underwater sandbars that come together to create the beautiful waves. Portions of this article originally appeared in an article published on Dec. 3, 2020. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The post World-Class Waves Could Propel Olympic Surfing Debut appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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document.write('<li class="rss-item"><a class="rss-item" href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/07/study-wealthy-out-of-state-renters-are-driving-the-market-in-honolulu/" target="_self">Study: Wealthy Out-Of-State Renters Are Driving The Market In Honolulu</a><br />');
document.write('<span class="rss-date">Mon, 26 Jul 2021 10:01:38 +0000</span><br />');
document.write('Most people searching for a place to rent in Honolulu are from out of state and have more money to spend on housing than most locals. That’s according to a recent analysis by the rental search website Apartment List. The study found that while nationally, about 30% of people who look for rentals in a city are coming from another area, more than one in two searches for rentals in Honolulu on Apartment List’s platform came from people who don’t live there. “That is very unusual,” said Igor Popov, chief economist at Apartment List. He thinks Honolulu is experiencing an amplified version of national trends: more remote workers, more renters competing for housing and more people looking for short-term housing, which could lead to higher rents. People looking for places to rent in Honolulu are likely to be out-of-state renters with bigger budgets than locals. Getty Images/iStockphoto The analysis found that in the second quarter of 2021, out-of-state renters most frequently came from Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, while people leaving Honolulu most frequently looked for rentals in Las Vegas, Seattle and Los Angeles. “In total, 53% of searches into Honolulu are coming from out-of-town apartment seekers,” the analysis concluded. “This migration flow is putting pressure on local rent prices because these movers have budgets that are 10% higher than the existing residents who are also searching for a new apartment.” The study was limited in scope but provides a glimpse into concerns about the possible trends and effects of migration into the islands during the pandemic. The state’s eviction moratorium is set to expire in two weeks and even with it in place, renters have worried about how spikes in home sales and high prices are displacing them. Popov said normally wealthier households don’t move around much but that changed last year due to the proliferation of remote work in the wake of stay-at-home orders. “A lot of people with that luxury say Hawaii is amazing,” he said. “The corollary to that is that people in remote-friendly occupations tend to have higher wages on average.” Honolulu is among many cities reliant on tourism, such as Orlando, Myrtle Beach and Lake Tahoe, that are experiencing an influx of wealthy renters. “The same things that make it a hospitality draw is drawing remote workers that are bringing pretty large paychecks into the market,” he said. The Apartment List data found that people who planned to move to Hawaii from the mainland were setting rent budgets that were about $175 higher than locals who looked for housing: $1,905 per month compared with $1,728. More renters are also looking for shorter-term leases, between one and six months long, Popov said. “Honolulu stood out as the market that had the biggest increase in short-term lease popularity,” he said, comparing Honolulu to other major cities across America. Popov said nationally there are more renters than there were previously in part because the extremely competitive home buying market is preventing people who might otherwise buy homes from doing so. He believes the effects of wealthier renters entering the market could drive up rents and force renters into more crowded situations. “Essentially doubling up is probably the primary way that people are navigating these really quickly rising rents,” he said. It’s possible the local business community could benefit from more money in the state, however. “One always wants to hope for a ‘rising tide lifts all boats’ story,” he said. The post Study: Wealthy Out-Of-State Renters Are Driving The Market In Honolulu appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.');
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