Tue. 4/7/20: COVID-19 Daily Update
NEW RESOURCES: MENTAL HEALTH & WELL-BEING
We added crisis hotline numbers to our Local 5 Resource Page. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, these hotlines are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you are experiencing an emergency or believe you are a danger to yourself and/or others, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room for immediate assistance.
Our Local 5 Resource Page also includes activities for your well-being, including free yoga classes, audiobooks for children, and lists of free things that weren’t free before coronavirus.
MESSAGE FROM OUR FINANCIAL SECRETARY-TREASURER ERIC GILL
Our Financial Secretary-Treasurer Eric Gill shared yesterday that some hotels are considering opening their doors to guests and community members who are self-isolating or self-quarantining due to COVID-19. Local 5 is calling on the hotel industry to ensure that the health and safety of our hotel workers and their families are a top priority.
Here is a flyer for hotel workers with some tips on how to protect you and your family if you are working a hotel that is being used as a temporary quarantine center. A full list of what you and your managers should be doing to protect yourselves and your families will be made available ASAP. Eric Gill explains these health & safety precautions in this video.
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
DLIR opens new call center as unemployment filings sail past 200,000 (Pacific Business News, April 7 2020)
Since the beginning of March, there have been 214,939 new unemployment filings—about 20,000 of them were duplicates. Director Murakami said that they are getting about 8,000 applications a day now, down from the 16,000 a day when shutdown first started. The DLIR mentioned the following issues as common causes of processing delays:
- Entering the wrong routing and account numbers when setting up direct deposit
- Entering the wrong dates of employment, wherein last date comes before the start date
- Selecting “no” when asked if available for work — while though those seeking unemployment are not obligated to look for three jobs per week at this time due to the COVID-19 crisis, applicants still need to select “yes” to avoid an error message)
- Failing to pull all employment data from the last 18 months
- Not listing a birth date
The DLIR twitter also has some fairly frequent posts with tips and updates: https://twitter.com/hi_dlir
Labor Department’s new phone bank goes down on first full day of operation (HawaiiNewsNow, April 7 2020)
Despite the problem with the phone lines, you should know the Kakaako location is staffed with workers who can help those who want to track a current case. The number is (833) 901-2275.
A second call center will help those needing to reset passwords if they filed unemployment before and already have an account. That number is (808) 762-5751.
There is a third phone bank to assist newly out-of-work residents who do not have access to the online forms. To reach that phone bank, call (808) 762-5752.
For UI Phone Appointments: (833) 901-2275.
Trump removes independent watchdog for coronavirus funds, upending oversight panel (Politico, April 7 2020)
As big chunks of the $2.2 trillion pool of taxpayer money is about to be distributed to corporations, a panel of inspectors general had named Glenn Fine (the acting Pentagon watchdog) to lead the group charged with monitoring the coronavirus relief effort.
On Monday, Trump removed Fine from his post, and instead named the EPA inspector general to serve as the temporary Pentagon watchdog in addition to his other responsibilities. Trump’s move made it impossible for Fine to fill the inspector general role his peers chose him to do.
This is from a president who still hasn’t released his own tax returns, which doesn’t bode well for the amount of accountability the public can expect.
Hawaii visitor arrivals rose for 4th time since Thursday (Star Advertiser, April 7, 2020)
Monday’s trans-Pacific passenger count was 513, including 133 visitors and 182 residents, on Sunday Visitor count was 126, it was 106 on Saturday, 94 on Friday and 89 on Thursday.
World: Cases: Cases: 1.43M (+900k). Deaths: 82.1k (+7.3k). Recovered: 301.4K (+30k)
USA: Cases: 400k(+32k). Deaths: 12.9k (+1.9k). Recovered: 22.4k (+2.6k)
Hawaii: Cases: 410 (+23). Deaths: 5 (0). Hospitalized: 42 (+16). Recovered: 113 (+24)
