HONOLULU (KHON2) — When it was launched in September 2020, the COVID-19 dashboard was the central data source for tracking the virus across the state.
It also showed the virus’ impact on the hospitals and even the number of personal protection equipment available.
Currently, the website is used to keep count of the reported cases of COVID-19 and is updated weekly.
“We track these statistics on a daily basis, and it helps us allocate resources, we share this information with the leadership within our entire healthcare delivery system, not only hospitals, long-term care, home care, hospitals,” said Hilton Raethel, Health Care Association of Hawaii, President and CEO.
The Hawaii State Department of Health is aligning its health avisements with the CDC guidelines but still plans to continue to use the dashboard with more than just COVID-19 data.
“Our decisions are informed by what we put in those dashboards and what we’re seeing happening locally,” explained State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble.
“So, I do think it’s really important that we continue to provide updated information to the public about what’s happening COVID but also other respiratory diseases like not just COVID but RSV respiratory syncytial virus, influenza.”
Federal money was used to create the site and the health department plans to continue using federal funding for the next two years to maintain the dashboard but develop an additional dashboard to keep track of overall respiratory disease activity in Hawaii.
“We’re really looking at how can we make updates to those dashboards to give that kind of broader information to people can make informed choices about how to protect themselves,” said Kemble.
Raethel agreed stating that “having more visibility into that is very helpful from a public health perspective and also from a treatment perspective.”
The Department of Health hopes to publish the updated site next month.
