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What masks?
A recent journey to California brought us face to face with, believe it or not, other people's faces. Lots of them: in stores and restaurants and the crowded dance floor of our niece's wedding.
It took a while to acclimate to this headlong return to normality. After two years of social distancing and smiling with our eyes, it felt odd going maskless around strangers indoors, an uneasy cross between taking a risk and breaking a rule. There was also a liberating tingle akin to starting summer vacation after a rough school year.
This month marks the second anniversary of the first reported case of COVID-19 in Hawaii. For the past two years, Gov. David Ige and the counties' mayors have taken tough, proactive stances on protecting citizens and visitors from COVID-19. Faced with the first global pandemic in 100 years, their cautious course included lockdowns, quarantines, shuttered schools, mandates, forced social distancing and travel testing programs.
The scattershot approach did limit the spread of COVID-19. Until omicron made triple-digit daily case numbers a common occurrence on Maui this past January, Hawaii suffered enviably low cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The public witnessed quite a bit of learning in the trenches as our leaders figured out what worked and what didn't, what people would accept and what really ticked some of them off.
As of Wednesday, state Department of Health data show Maui County has logged 29,792 coronavirus cases and suffered 130 deaths attributed to the pandemic. The United States has reported 79.6 million cases and 969,000 deaths according to The New York Times. Worldwide, the numbers include 466 million cases and 6.07 million deaths.
Not every strategy attempted by our leaders, or, for that matter, recommended in this editorial space, hit the mark, but it is easy to second-guess decisions after the battle has been waged. The primary goals were to protect our elders and to keep our hospitals from being overrun until a safe and effective vaccine was available for all. Check, check and check.
In the rearview mirror, washing hands every 10 minutes and daily disinfections of entire school campuses seem almost quaint in their naivete. Who else wiped down groceries after returning from the store two years ago? At the time, it must have seemed like a good idea to order police on ATVs to make sure beachgoers were being active and not sitting on their butts.
We lived and learned.
Two of the last vestiges of Hawaii's COVID-19 restrictions are scheduled to end at midnight Friday when the Safe Travels Program and Ige's indoor mask mandate come to a close.
Some may still choose to wear masks at times, and there is always concern a new, terrible strain will throw a wrench into the works. We're looking forward to seeing the smiles of friends and strangers, to turning to a new page of this strange and challenging chapter of our history.