The life blood of Hawaii is cut off.
In order to keep the corona virus from spreading across Hawaii from the outside, the State issued a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone visiting Hawaii. Essentially, since March 26th, Hawaii has stopped all non residents from coming to her sandy shores.
Hotels and restaurants are temporarily closing and unemployment is sky rocketing. Without outside visitors, the state is buckling from this foreign born virus.
A lone swimmer exits the waters onto Waikiki Beach.
The State of Hawaii has also issued a mandatory stay-at-home for most residents, but many furloughed locals are taking the declaration lightly. While they’ve replace the missing tourists, beaches around the Oahu are still lifeless.
For many, we are experiencing a Hawaii without sharing it will the world. No Japanese girls cutely flashing peace symbols while posing for selfies, no obnoxious mainlander gawking out the window of a rented jeep while backing up already backed up traffic.
In Waikiki, I heard a local surfer ask another who had just gotten out of the water how the waves were. He replied, “epic, bra, epic.” Another local couple sat on the beach and shared a bottle of wine at sunset. A father washed sand of his young son’s legs after they went for a swim. Against it seemed as if it was just another day in Hawaii, sans tourists.
We are now at 151 confirmed cases on Saturday, March 28th. A police officer and a fireman also were just confirmed to be infected with the corona virus. A majority of the infections seem to be from residents who returned from elsewhere and only a few cases seem to be from community transfer. Just two weeks ago, we only had two confirmed cases. The State should have closed things down quicker and now I fear the Islands will see a major increase in the next week or so.
To note, 39 Hawaii residents have recovered and we have no confirmed deaths from COVID-19.
While it seems idyllic for many of us to enjoy the empty beaches and waves, a tsunami might be on the horizon.