A University of Hawaii epidemiology professor says that because most of Hawaii’s communities are rural, it could help lessen the chance of a major COVID-19 outbreak here.
“We only have one urban center in Honolulu and the rest of the islands are rural including any spot on Oahu that’s outside of Honolulu, that’s considered rural,” Alan Katz, a professor at UH-Manoa, said in a news release. “So that’s good. People are less densely populated.”
He said that gives the state some leeway in minimizing the spread of the highly infectious virus.
Because the incubation period for COVID-19 is up to 14 days, Katz said Hawaii will inevitably see more cases during the statewide lockdown but is hopeful it won’t be a steep increase.
In order to avoid a major outbreak, he urges everyone to take health guidelines seriously.
“The most important thing you can do is maintain social distancing,” he said. “Stay 6 feet away from each other. That’s going to really dramatically mitigate person to person spread of this.
“If you’re not essential, if you’re supposed to be at home, try to stay at home. Don’t aggregate in groups.”