As Hawai‘i Residents Reach 70% Full Vaccination, DOH Urges Continued Vigilance

Hawai‘i Department of Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Char is urging continued vigilance as Hawai‘i reaches its latest vaccination milestone.

“While we are encouraged that 70% of Hawai‘i residents have made the choice to protect themselves and our community through vaccination, there is more work to do. Even with this rate of protection, our seven-day average case count is 130 new cases per day. We encourage all eligible Hawai‘i residents to become part of the solution and get vaccinated,” said Dr. Char.  

In all, there are still more than 426,000 Hawai‘i residents who have not completed vaccination.

• Nearly 102,000 eligible Hawai‘i residents have not started vaccination, and
• Approximately 117,000 Hawai‘i residents have initiated, but not completed vaccination.
• There are also 207,492 children between the age of 0-11 who are not yet eligible for vaccination. 

Earlier on in the pandemic, 70% was the point at which state officials had anticipated lifting COVID-related restrictions on travel; however with the rise in variants, and a surge in the Delta variant in August, government leaders baked away from that target saying various metrics are being considered when evaluating the loosening of restrictions.