If it’s any consolation, Hawaii is going through the same social and economic pains as Guam as a result of the coronavirus crisis. KUAM News spoke with Hawaii state senator Glenn Wakai today about the many shared challenges our respective islands are facing.

So far there have been 220 positive cases in the Aloha State, but Senator Wakai says luckily no deaths. "We’re in the containment mode, which to me we should’ve been in the defense mode a month ago, but that’s water under the bridge," he said. "We didn’t do enough, in my opinion, to keep visitors out who were carrying the COVID virus, so we’re scrambling now. We last week had a mandatory quarantine for visitors who come to the state of Hawaii."

Hawaii governor David Ige has ordered a statewide self-isolation, and Wakai says for the most part residents have been compliant. "We do have some knuckleheads out there who are actually going out still gathering and partying with their friends, but we have criminalized that type of behavior. So, in fact, two days ago there were three individuals that were arrested and many people have been given ciations, so the government is trying its best to enforce the mandate to shelter in place, stay home."

Hawaii has tested about 4 percent of its population compared to South Korea’s highly-successful 7 percent. "You’ve got to test people to know how to respond, so we’re trying to increase the amount of testing here but as in anyplace on this planet getting those proper testing equipment Is the challenge," the senator explained.

Like Guam, Hawaii’s tourism industry has been devastated. It went from an average of 35,000 arrivals a day, down to just 800 yesterday, quantified Wakai, adding that most of those were locals returning home. Wakai says unemployment rolls went from less than 10,000 earlier this month, to 60,000 now.

"One good thing about Hawaii is we had a pretty full unemployment insurance fund, around $800 million was there. So now during these kinds of rainy day times we have that to rely on. You may be familiar with the federal stimulus package, signed by the president yesterday, that’s supposed to bring in to Hawaii $1.2 billion in resources."

"I think its lesson learned both for Guam and Hawaii on the pitfalls of having an economy entirely based on tourism and the military, so I see this as a great opportunity for Hawaii to pivot to go into the innovation economy and be a little less reliant on tourism jobs at this juncture," Wakai noted.

Senator Wakai has a soft spot in his heart for Guam: he lived here for several years in the early 90’s while working as a reporter for us at KUAM News.