Monday marked Hawaii’s 12th straight day of triple-digit coronavirus-case increases, giving it the highest transmission rate in the U.S.
Scientists tracking the rate of spread, known as the reproduction rate, pegged Hawaii as the highest in the nation, KHNL-TV reported Monday. Hawaii’s rate is 1.6, meaning every person who gets sick is passing it on to an average of 1.6 other people, reported KHNL.
“That is very, very high,” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell told the station.
Rapid spread is considered anything over a 1, KHNL said. Even in hard-hit Texas, the rate is 1.16, and South Dakota barely trails Hawaii with a 1.2.
“We are ‘super spreaders,’ ” Dr. Scott Miscovich, president and founder of Premier Medical Group Hawaii, who is running COVID testing sites, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “National statistics show that for every one person that tests positive for corona-virus in Hawaii, the number of people that they are spreading to is the highest in the country.”
A rate higher than 1 indicates rapid spread, the Star-Advertiser said, and below 1 means it will eventually stop spreading. Hawaii has been above 1 since May 7, when the economy began reopening, the newspaper said.
Hawaii has seen 3,638 cases total, 140 of them new as of Monday, with 34 deaths. All but two of the new cases were on Oahu, as were both reported deaths, the Hawaii Department of Health said.
While the overall numbers are low compared to other states, the rate of increase is what’s troubling, health officials said. Miscovich said the problematic rate could soon test the state’s health care capacity.
“It’s just a glaring example of how we need to be serious about this,” Miscovich told KHNL. “We need to wear masks, we need to social distance.”
