COVID-19

COVID-19 and Transient Vacation Rentals

The first presumptive positive case of the Novel Corona Virus 19 in Hawaii was reported on March 6, 2020.   The number of cases started to grow rapidly and on March 17, Governor Ige announced state actions to combat the virus which included closures of certain businesses.   These were followed by his supplemental orders on March 22 and 23 which announced a 14 day quarantines on travelers and established vacation rentals as non-essential businesses which are required to shut down.  The state has been actively prosecuting violators of the quarantine order as this article shows.  https://hawaiicovid19.com/special-agents-arrest-two-more-quarantine-violators/.  However, it also means that if you have had guests since then, you had them illegally and you could be arrested and fined or prosecuted.  Included in the governor’s order was the following statement:

“As of March 23, 2020, there is a total of 77 presumptive or positive COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i. 61 of these cases involve Hawai‘i residents and the majority (49) are on O‘ahu.  Travel or contact with a traveler is the risk factor in 47 cases, and only one case has no travel history. “

From this statement and those below, it is clear that tourism is perceived as a threat.  The reasons for this are explained in some detail in the discussion of the spread of the virus in Lt. Governor Green’s interview below.

Please see the news updates in the right sidebar to see latest announcements.  To follow the latest announcements, please see the following websites.

Department of Health (DOH) https://hawaiicovid19.com/

Governor’s Office https://governor.hawaii.gov/covid-19/

Lt. Governor Green Interview regarding Travel with Aloha Initiative https://bigislandnow.com/2020/05/11/green-announces-travel-with-aloha-program/

County of Honolulu/Oahu https://www.honolulu.gov/site-dem-sitearticles/37959-alert-covid-19.html

County of Maui https://www.mauicounty.gov/2370/COVID-19-Coronavirus-Information

Mayor Victorino Interview May 21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEXL0QkKYLE

Mayor Victorino Interview with Maui News Now on May 16 https://mauinow.com/2020/05/16/hawaii-tourism-now-maui-mayor-michael-victorino-responds-to-questions-about-mauis-tourism-industry/

County of Hawaii https://coronavirus-response-county-of-hawaii-hawaiicountygis.hub.arcgis.com/

County of Kauai https://www.kauai.gov/covid-19