HONOLULU — Adult intensive-care units throughout the state are packed.
On Friday, the state’s hospitals reported a total of 223 licensed adult ICU beds and 224 ICU patients, 99 of whom have COVID-19.
Experts are worried large gatherings associated with the holiday weekend could generate a surge in COVID-19 case numbers.
The uptick would further burden a hospital system already racing to care for an unprecedented number of coronavirus patients.
“We have a record number of COVID-positive patients in our hospitals today (Friday) — 446,” Hilton Raethel, president of the Healthcare Association of Hawai‘i, told the state Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 Friday. “That is a new record. That is an increase of 330% since Aug. 1.”
Raethel and others who addressed the committee attributed the soaring numbers to the state’s unvaccinated population, which makes up over 90% of all current cases of COVID-19 in Hawai‘i.
“In the unvaccinated population, the infection rate is six to seven times more than what we looked at in the pandemic last year,” Raethel said. “That is a rather sobering statistic.”
ICU capacity is the most critical potential breakpoint within the Hawai‘i health care system, according to Raethel.
“We’re getting close to not being able to provide ICU care for all patients needing it, which means some patients will not get the optimal level of care to maintain health and, potentially, life,” he said.
Should the pandemic overwhelm the health-care system, all island hospitals are prepared to enact crisis standards of care, which determine who receives treatment and who doesn’t. But this worst-case scenario isn’t on the table yet, thanks to an ongoing influx of out-of-state staff funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The FEMA-funded staffing has allowed us to avoid implementing crisis standards of care, at least for the near future,” Raethel said. “If we did not have this available in this state right now, as of today … it is very possible that some of our hospitals would be operating under crisis standards of care right now.”
The availability of medical-grade oxygen, which is difficult to transport from the mainland, has also been an area of concern.
The state’s two chief suppliers have converted their facilities to 100% medical-grade oxygen production in response, and hospitals have instituted conservation protocols to ensure no gas is wasted. These measures and others have likely staved off a crisis, according to Raethel, who believes Hawai‘i is no longer in danger of running short.
Other speakers on Friday included state Department of Health Director Dr. Elizabeth “Libby” Char, state Attorney General Clare E. Conners and University of Hawai‘i researchers behind Hawai‘i Pandemic Applied Modeling, a volunteer group dedicated to forecasting pandemic trends within the state.
Committee members expressed deep concern over the experts’ “scary” reports, and urged Char and Connors to initiate greater public-health messaging and investigation of vaccine fraud, respectively.
The committee also repeatedly pressed officials to instate new COVID-19 tier systems, arguing doing so would provide the public with a clear view of the pandemic’s current state and potential consequences.
“I think the predictability of the different tiers did help reduce some level of stress and frustration,” said committee Chair Sen. Donovan M. Dela Cruz.
Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole and Sen. Michelle Kidani reported receiving messages from constituents voicing opposition to vaccines in favor of unsafe and unsubstantiated treatment methods like ivermectin (used to treat parasitic worms in humans and animals).
Kidani closed the meeting by asking Raethel and Char if either had encountered an unvaccinated hospital patient who refused treatment for the coronavirus. Both answered no.
“It’s an interesting fact that happens on a regular basis … by the time they get sick enough to go to a hospital, they say, ‘Give me whatever it takes to get me well,’” Raethel said. “And that is unfortunate.”
Char echoed Raethel’s comments.
“We have many stories of people asking the health-care workers as they lay sick, ‘I should have gotten vaccinated. I wish I knew. Can I get vaccinated now?’” she said. “As Hilton said, the answer is ‘no, you can’t get vaccinated right now.’”
Hospitals are approaching a breaking point.
On Wednesday, Gov. David Ige signed an executive order stating that health-care facilities, professionals and volunteers “shall be immune from civil liability for any death or injury to persons or property damage alleged to have been caused by any act or omission…”
According to Ige, the order was given in anticipation of worsening hospital conditions.
“Certainly, as we’ve heard today, we have pushed our health-care system to the maximum,” Ige said in a Friday press conference. “My executive order does outline the next steps of what would happen. It does provide for an acknowledged crisis-management situation where care would have to be provided and rationed, if you will, if we are unable to reduce the census that we see in the hospitals.”
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Scott Yunker, general assignment reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com. Laurel Smith, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0424 or lsmith@thegardenisland.com, and contributed to this report.
If these “health professionals” would have treatment for Covid instead of telling everyone to stay home until they’re basically dying, less people would come to the emergency room, but they still have not recommended or outlined a treatment plan or method for combating covid in the early stages, “staying home” isn’t treatment, doctors need to be recommending different options for people to seek out on their own or get administered to from their doctor, this is the only “highly contagious” sickness where they don’t try to treat it as soon as you get it
Absolutely agree with you.
Drinking turmeric and ginger tea is enough to strengthen immune system to stay out of any hospital. Getting sun, vitamin D, exercising , Zinc supplements all the good stuff they don’t recommend, just sit at home till you are nearly dead, then go to the hospital. This American system of health care is stupid and worthless, designed to line pockets of Big Pharma and nothing more.
If you’re willing to follow medical advice for early treatment of COVID19, why would you not get the vaccination the same medical professionals would recommend?
Quick internet search and I found:
“Look for emergency warning signs* for COVID-19. If someone is showing any of these signs, seek emergency medical care immediately:
Trouble breathing
Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
New confusion
Inability to wake or stay awake
Pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html
Let’s look at the real numbers. Ignore “cases” which just means a positive test. Let’s look at hospitalizations which means that you are sick enough to seek help. Lt Gov Green reported on 8/26 that there were 427 covid hospitalizations with 87% unvaccinated. He reported on 9/3 that there were 446 with 83% unvaccinated. Now, 83 is a big scary number. However when you do the math you get the following:
Unvaccinated went from 373 to 370 in a week while
Vaccinated went from 54 to 76.
Do the math yourself and see. Yet it is being reported as an “epidemic of the unvaccinated”. Really? Looks like it’s the vaccinated who are driving the increase in hospitalizations.
Let’s continue your logic one more step: If those unvaxxed had actually been vaccinated, what do you think the total numbers would be?
The old saying comes to find: figures never lie, but liars can sure figure.
This story is about the very sick taking up extremely limited/extremely expensive ICU spaces – of which almost all covid cases are filled with anti-vaxxers.
The entire point of getting vaccinated is to significantly reduce symptoms and death, which the vaccines do extremely well.
Show us the real data. I have the feeling that people are testing positive and being coerced to go into the hospital.
We all know the ‘real’ data is on 4chan, NewsMax and Uncle Billybob’s FB page.
Yet we still were not worried. Of course we had heard of the
Fascists, but it was all in the abstract. It meant nothing more to us
than a change of ministry.
The next day brought really disquieting news: German troops
had penetrated Hungarian territory with the government’s approval.
In less than three days, German Army vehicles made their
appearance on our streets.
—
Elie Wiesel, “Night”
90% of the new covid cases are among unvaccinated. It is their choice to remain unvaccinated, so let them get covid. But please, remove the restrictions on the vaccinated. And the new Kauai fines for not wearing a mask are something Adolf Hitler would do——“If you don’t wear your Jewish star you will be punished.”
At what point will everyone admit that everyone will get Covid eventually. EVERYONE! Joining the shot, that is not a “vaccine”, experiment is a choice some people will make. Not trusting the Politicians, Drug Companies, and our corrupted Government Health Agencies who are pushing, and making fortunes off this “new” type of shot, is also wise? Though the corrupted fact checking News Monkeys always find some way to argue with everything, the latest study that just came out of Israel should make everyone pause their shot hysteria! Israel is probably the first administered too, and most fully vaccinated Country on earth with some of the best research labs in the world. It has a population that’s almost 90% vaccinated! When it comes to the vaccine, they’ve been able to study the results with more data, and much better accuracy, than any other Country! So what have their findings shown? Immunity from the shots is shorter and weaker than the natural immunity for those who get the Virus and recover. They found thirteen times more antibodies and protection from recovering Covid patients than the shot provides. They also found that the natural protection lasts much longer than the vaccine!
Are all of you healthy individuals really going to be happy getting these untested shots every 6 months, or year, for life? The Israeli study also revealed that around 80% of Israel’s current Covid hospitalized patients had been fully vaccinated! Of course, that’s not surprising since there is such a high percentage of vaccinated, but what does that say about the shot? Are you positive that there will not be long term side effects that could come back to haunt us all? There’s not a Scientist in the World that knows for sure!! If you’re immune deficient, have a pre-existing health problem, or obese, which means over half of Kauai, GET THE SHOT! If you’re healthy and not worried about getting this flu, then follow your conscience. My family of 5, chose not to get the shot, we all got Covid, it wasn’t bad at all, and we are now more protected than any shot taker. Make up your own mind without listening to the uninformed pretending to know that it’s the right thing to do! This is a free Country and they will not take that freedom away if we can help it!!
Have your plan in place if you get Covid. Vaccinated or not. I saw my doctor on Friday, Im asking for teatments on day one. The election is over, FDA approval, science has spoken!
Oh that’s right their is another election in 14 months, we have a idiot for President and congress is wanting to give away your kids future for socialism.
Wake up Kauai, the media has brain washed you and now we have 13 Patroits who have died and hostages left behind.
I’m, not I’m
All you useless people and your opinions. Until you have someone close to you going through this and even dying, you only care for yourself. You folks are creating the second pandemic. If you get sick with COVID, please no go to the hospital or clinics, cause you folks know better, so get well by yourselves at home. Cause you know better than us that took the vaccine.
Why give healthcare workers more exposure when you did nothing to protect yourselves….
One of my close friends was “anti-vaccine”, he is now in the hospital for the past 2 weeks fighting. Now he is preaching to get the vaccine. He experienced it first hand and pushing the vaccine so others don’t go through what he is going through. He still in there, going on week 3. Also, he can’t have visitors, no +COVID patients can have visitors. But knowing you folks, you would probably fight that rule too.
Lastly, half of everything you eat, you don’t know what’s in it. Almost all supplements are not FDA approved.
Smedley Aberdeen: “If you don’t wear your Jewish star you will be punished.”
Wearing a mask to help protect others is not even remotely close to wearing a Jewish star. It’s a temporary measure while indoors and/or around others. They implemented citations because of people like you > stubborn and uneducated.
Kali Yuga: You’re equally ridiculous!
Enough is enough. No vaccine = no ICU. The willfully ignorant should not be overwhelming our limited health care.
Look at the graphs. Worldwide the countries with the highest vaccination rate have the highest death and case counts. The vaccine plan is not working and will not work. They are lying to us.
That radical group the Kaiser Family Foundation tracks Covid data very closely (they have to treat the victims). This is from their latest report:
“The data reported from these states indicate that breakthrough cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are extremely rare events among those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (see Figure 1). The rate of breakthrough cases reported among those fully vaccinated is below 1% in all reporting states, ranging from 0.01% in Connecticut to 0.54% in Arkansas.
The hospitalization rate among fully vaccinated people with COVID-19 ranged from effectively zero (0.00%) in California, Delaware, D.C., Indiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, and Virginia to 0.06% in Arkansas. (Note: Hospitalization may or may not have been due to COVID-19.)
The rates of death among fully vaccinated people with COVID-19 were even lower, effectively zero (0.00%) in all but two reporting states, Arkansas and Michigan where they were 0.01%. (Note: Deaths may or may not have been due to COVID-19.)”
Maybe vaccines really do work?