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With coronavirus at the community-spread stage and daily cases persisting at triple-digit numbers, the anxiety level surely is rising among residents. It’s getting harder to avoid a brush with someone or somewhere with confirmed exposure.
Exposure should warrant a visit to the doctor’s office — or, perhaps more conveniently, to a drive-thru testing site. This past weekend, sites were in the Ewa, Wahiawa and Kakaako areas. Initially, these testing pop-ups seemed to apply mainly to workers in the health-care industry; now, unfortunately, it could be just about anyone.
Corrections commission struggles
Earlier this year, the state unleashed a watchdog to oversee the Department of Public Safety’s endeavor to shift some focus at prisons and jails from punitive to rehabilitative. Among the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission’s powers: conducting independent investigations and making unannounced inspections.
Recently, the Hawaii Supreme Court tapped the fledgling commission to help state officials deal with threats tied to COVID-19 and overcrowding. But it’s vexing that watchdog will have little ability to bite, given that state Budget and Finance officials have rejected release of funds earmarked for the volunteer commission’s hiring of staff — including an oversight coordinator.
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