The University of Hawaii Public Policy Center has released the results of a survey intended to find out what the attitude of Hawaii residents are to some of the issues around COVID-19.

Hawaii has been under restrictions that have affected resident behavior and a great number of businesses.  The state’s largest economic sector – tourism – has been largely shut down.  Businesses and schools have been shut down.  People who were not essential workers were asked to stay home and to wear masks when out, although businesses have started reopening and many workers are back at work.  But around 37% of Hawaii’s workers have filed for unemployment.

The survey was of 609 residents, and was done the week prior to June 24 (when Governor Ige initially announced the August 1 loosening of the 14-day mandatory quarantine on travelers coming in from out of state, which has now been postponed to September 1.)  At that time, cases of COVID-19 were fairly well contained in the state, although starting on June 1 the cases had started to increase.  Right now, the state has 1,243 cases, still the lowest of any state in the country, with, per Gov. David Ige on Monday, 311 active cases.

Some of the key findings:

-54% felt “a little” or “very” unsafe out out to places with many other people

-71% somewhat or strongly trusted state and local government to keep people safe

-86% felt public health restrictions were most reasonable steps to protect public health

-7% felt the public health restrictions were mostly unreasonable violations of civil rights

-81% do not want tourists coming in right now

-17% wanted more restrictions on tourism and better quarantine enforcement

-67% believe there will be a “second wave” of COVID-19

-69% want to see big changes in the nature of tourism before reopening

A majority felt that that the state’s shutting down tourism from out of state (i.e. the 14-day travel quarantine) was the right thing to do.

Around 30% of the residents surveyed felt that it was not worth it to discourage medical visits other than for coronavirus, and visits to the beach.

The study authors are John Knox, PhD, President, John M. Knox & Associates, Inc;   Colin Moore, PhD, Director, University of
Hawai‘i Public Policy Center, and Sherilyn Hayashida, PhD Assistant Specialist, University of Hawai‘i Public Policy Center.  Click here for the survey.