4 ms·

They are a bunch of islands in the middle of nowhere with a population of a larger city - how is their situation applicable to any major nation in the world ?

tialaramex 5y ago
Uhuh. Hawaii, an entire US state that is "a bunch of islands in the middle of nowhere" and yet somehow didn't eliminate the virus has far fewer people than New Zealand.
- schnable 5y ago
  Did they lockdown travel into the state like NZ did?
  - ghaff 5y ago
    No. There have been plenty of people traveling in and out of Hawaii all along. There were some quarantine/testing requirements at various times. But certainly not closed borders. I even looked of going there at one point but, when I looked, hotels were quite expensive.
- AnthonyMouse 5y ago
  Hawaii has the lowest coronavirus death rate per capita of any US state and is lower than the US average by nearly a factor of five.
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    Yet it's still almost 100x the death rate of NZ, per capita.
    - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
      Hawaii is still allowing tourism from the USA, I assume NZ is not allowing similar tourism. They could have locked down harder (being an island and all) but didn't probably because their economy isn't as independent as NZ's is.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  - lutorm 5y ago
    Cases have been skyrocketing in Hawaii over the last month, though, especially on the outlying islands. Before July, the highest daily case count the Big Island had ever had was ~30. Now the 7-day average is 125, or 60/100k. Given the health care resources available anywhere but in Honolulu, things won't be pretty if it keeps climbing.
- legostormtroopr 5y ago
  Hawaii is a state, not a sovereign country - locking down domestic interstate travel and trade is much harder than locking don international travel.
  - tjmc 5y ago
    Western Australia is also a state and we've regularly locked down all travel from other Australian states when they have community outbreaks. We have a COVID death rate lower than New Zealand and, like NZ, have lived essentially normally throughout COVID despite the travel restrictions. Currently you can only come here from NSW with express permission and then you have to quarantine at your own expense for 2 weeks. Quarantine requirements kick-in whenever there's a community outbreak in other states/territories and the restrictions ramp up as case numbers grow. It is easy for Western Australia and Tasmania to isolate because the former has a vast desert between here and the east coast and the latter is an island without an international airport (probably one of the safer spots on Earth). There's no physical reason Hawaii and Alaska couldn't have done the same, but it's probably not politically or socially acceptable.
  - cmrdporcupine 5y ago
    Atlantic Canada locked travel from out of region down almost completely ... as a result Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland have had the lowest rates (per capita) of COVID in North America: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-in-the-u-s-how-do-canada-s-provinces-rank-against-american-states-1.5051033 https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-in-the-u-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Bubble

tialaramex 5y ago

Uhuh. Hawaii, an entire US state that is "a bunch of islands in the middle of nowhere" and yet somehow didn't eliminate the virus has far fewer people than New Zealand.

schnable 5y ago
Did they lockdown travel into the state like NZ did?
- ghaff 5y ago
  No. There have been plenty of people traveling in and out of Hawaii all along. There were some quarantine/testing requirements at various times. But certainly not closed borders. I even looked of going there at one point but, when I looked, hotels were quite expensive.
AnthonyMouse 5y ago
Hawaii has the lowest coronavirus death rate per capita of any US state and is lower than the US average by nearly a factor of five.
- AussieWog93 5y ago
  Yet it's still almost 100x the death rate of NZ, per capita.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    Hawaii is still allowing tourism from the USA, I assume NZ is not allowing similar tourism. They could have locked down harder (being an island and all) but didn't probably because their economy isn't as independent as NZ's is.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- lutorm 5y ago
  Cases have been skyrocketing in Hawaii over the last month, though, especially on the outlying islands. Before July, the highest daily case count the Big Island had ever had was ~30. Now the 7-day average is 125, or 60/100k. Given the health care resources available anywhere but in Honolulu, things won't be pretty if it keeps climbing.
legostormtroopr 5y ago
Hawaii is a state, not a sovereign country - locking down domestic interstate travel and trade is much harder than locking don international travel.
- tjmc 5y ago
  Western Australia is also a state and we've regularly locked down all travel from other Australian states when they have community outbreaks. We have a COVID death rate lower than New Zealand and, like NZ, have lived essentially normally throughout COVID despite the travel restrictions. Currently you can only come here from NSW with express permission and then you have to quarantine at your own expense for 2 weeks. Quarantine requirements kick-in whenever there's a community outbreak in other states/territories and the restrictions ramp up as case numbers grow. It is easy for Western Australia and Tasmania to isolate because the former has a vast desert between here and the east coast and the latter is an island without an international airport (probably one of the safer spots on Earth). There's no physical reason Hawaii and Alaska couldn't have done the same, but it's probably not politically or socially acceptable.
- cmrdporcupine 5y ago
  Atlantic Canada locked travel from out of region down almost completely ... as a result Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland have had the lowest rates (per capita) of COVID in North America: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-in-the-u-s-how-do-canada-s-provinces-rank-against-american-states-1.5051033 https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-in-the-u-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Bubble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Bubble