Case counts are as high as they’ve been since mid-February and those figures are likely a major undercount because of unreported positive home test results and asymptomatic infections.
People line up at a food truck parked near Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Monday, May 23, 2022. A COVID surge is under way that is starting to cause disruptions as schools wrap up for the year and Americans prepare for summer vacations. Case counts are as high as they've been since mid-February and those figures are likely a major undercount because of unreported home tests and asymptomatic infections. But the beaches beckoned and visitors have flocked to Hawaii, especially in recent months.
Yet vaccinations have stagnated and elected officials nationwide seem loath to impose new restrictions on a public that's ready to move on even as the U.S. death toll“People probably are underestimating the prevalence of COVID,” said Crystal Watson, public health lead in the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
In Hawaii, which once had one of the nation's lowest rates of infection, hospitalization and death, new cases are surging among the state’s 1.4 million residents. The University of HawaiiWith cases climbing for eight straight weeks, Hawaii has the second highest infection rate of any state, trailing only Rhode Island. But because positive home test results aren't counted in official data, Hawaii's health department estimates that the case count is actually five or six times higher.