The sun sets off of Waikiki Beach on the Hawaiian island of Oahu on Saturday, June 26, 2021 in Honolulu, HI.
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag

COVID cases in Hawaii are skyrocketing: Over the last week, the state is averaging 514 cases per day, more than double any period prior to August 2021. The state reported 643 new COVID-19 cases Sunday, marking the fourth consecutive day of cases over 600.

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Around 60% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, while 67.8% have received at least one dose. The new cases have been largely attributed to the spread of the more contagious delta variant of the virus.

The good news is deaths are still low (six deaths from the virus have been reported over the last week), but the huge surge in community spread, combined with hotel rooms being filled again with tourists, has left no more room to quarantine. Hospitalizations are also on the rise.

On the islands of Oahu and Hawaii, far fewer rooms are available for coronavirus-positive patients looking to quarantine than when cases were lower in 2020, reports Honolulu Civil Beat.

“Hotels that provided isolation/quarantine rooms last year are now reserving those rooms for visitors,” Brooks Baehr, spokesman for the Department of Health, told the outlet.

This chart shows the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Hawaii, reporting a record-breaking 514 7-day average new cases on Aug. 9 2021.
Google/Screenshot

Oahu currently has only 64 rooms available for quarantining, less than a quarter of that the same time last year, despite cases being higher now. All are currently full or being cleaned, while 30 people are on the wait list.

In Hawaii County zero rooms are currently available to residents who need to quarantine. The Honolulu Civil Beat reports that the island had a contract with hotels for 119 rooms, but that expired on July 31.

Rooms to quarantine are particularly important for those who live in overcrowded homes and are unable to separate from their roommates or family members at home. Recent data shows that Native Hawaiians are far more likely to live in these conditions than other groups.

The Department of Health spokesperson said the agency is currently in the process of attempting to secure more rooms.

Meanwhile, an announcement is expected this week from Gov. David Ige on reimposing restrictions, as the new surge threatens to overwhelm the state's health care system. This week several hotels in the state put up triage tents to deal with the rise in hospitalizations. There are currently around 220 hospitalized Hawaii residents with COVID; on July 1 that number was 40.

“We are having to look at restrictions again,” Ige told Spotlight Hawaii on Monday. “We were hoping that the case counts would level off and begin to normalize, but we are seeing exponential growth.”