The Wednesday morning, April 22 Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard:

World: Cases: 2,594,724    Deaths:  179,778

U.S.:  Cases:  826, 248  Deaths: 45,153

Hawaii State Department of Health reports that the state has 586 cumulative cases, with 437 recovered–75%.  But the state has also had 12 deaths.

The Big Island has had 64 cumulative cases, 38 of which, per DOH, have recovered.  But there has been a large outbreak — per DOH, now at 32– associated with the McDonald’s restaurants in Kailua-Kona, and DOH says they are still investigating.

One of the keys to addressing a pandemic is contact tracing, talking with each victim to find out where they’d been and with whom they’d been in contact for the week prior to coning down with COVID-19.  Dr. Bruce Anderson, head of State DOH, has said each person generally has 30 to 36 contacts.  For the McDonald’s outbreak, that means State DOH contact tracers have to talk with around 1,000 people.  Eric Honda, the Hawaii Island lead for Department of Health, says he has redeployed public health nurses to help in that effort.  But Dr. Anderson, in updating legislators, has said the Department needs additional personnel to help.

The state is under a “stay at home” order through April 30.   Governor David Ige has said he may extend it.  On O’ahu, Mayor Kirk Caldwell has extended that island’s “stay at home” order through May 31, while allowing a bit more flexibility.  He’s opening City Parks for running, jogging, biking, and walking this Saturday.  But he’s also greatly expanding testing, saying he’s going to spend $2 million to get an additional 10,000 to 13,000 test kits, to be managed by O’ahu’s community health centers.

On the Big Island, Mayor Harry Kim late Tuesday issued a new Emergency Rule mandating that everybody wear masks in stores, use hand sanitizer, and more.

University of Hawaii Public Policy Center issued a report last weekend called Crush the Curve, which details steps Hawaii must take to address the public health issues, which will allow the state to reopen its economy.  New West Broadcasting’s Sherry Bracken recorded an interview with the lead author, Dr. Robert Perkinson, in which Dr. Perkinson details the report’s key points of continuing social distancing, ramping up testing, doing aggressive contact tracing, and quarantining anybody with COVID-19.  Click here for that interview.