Honoring lives lost to COVID-19 in Hawaii

Another week, another year — and yet more lives lost to COVID-19.

As the pandemic stretches beyond its third year, Americans continue to die from a virus that has turned the world upside-down, shaken up the economy and kept people apart.

As of Wednesday, Hawaii’s COVID-19 death toll had grown by 10 to 1,758 fatalities, according to the state Department of Health. A little more than a third of the total, or 600-plus deaths, occurred this year alone. Nationally, the COVID-19 death toll surpassed 1 million in May and is closing in on 1.09 million as the year comes to a close.

In the U.S., COVID-19 is on track to become the third-leading cause of death for the third year in a row, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, behind heart disease and cancer. In Hawaii, COVID-19 was the fourth-leading cause of death in 2021, according to DOH, behind heart disease, cancer and stroke.

While there is a better understanding of the coronavirus now than before, along with more measures to manage its impacts, including vaccines, treatments, home tests and bivalent boosters, there is still no predictable pattern at it continues to evolve, and much remains unknown.

What is undeniable is that the loss of life to COVID-19 has left a devastating wake of grief for many.

“Just this past week we talked about joy as a wonderful thing and how we should be feeling joyful at the Christmas season,” said the Rev. Mary Herbig, minister of congregational life and care at Central Union Church. “But the reality is so many of us cannot be joyful because we are aware of the people missing at our tables and in our lives.”

>> RELATED: Lives lost to COVID-19: Art Whistler of Manoa

>> RELATED: Lives lost to COVID-19: Ia Saipaia of Honolulu

Central Union Church, in an effort to humanize the scale of loss, on All Saints’ Day in 2020 and 2021 set out empty chairs across its lawn and rang its tower bell once for each life lost in Hawaii to COVID-19.

In 2020, the church set out 228 empty chairs and the bell solemnly rang for 15 minutes and 12 seconds.

Last year, the toll quadrupled to 916 and it took 45 minutes and 48 seconds for bells to honor those lost to the disease.

No ceremony was held this year when Hawaii’s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 1,700, due to the higher number and lack of resources, said Herbig. If it had been held, the bell would have tolled for perhaps 90 minutes straight.

Central Union Church did, however, hold its annual “Longest Night of the Year” service on the winter solstice Wednesday, open to people of all faiths, to offer time for reflection, to acknowledge feelings of grief and loneliness and hang symbolic ornaments honoring those who were lost.

The pandemic has disrupted the lives of many others, including those experiencing long COVID — long-term symptoms that last well beyond the initial infection. Some are also struggling financially to make ends meet.

“There are so many families experiencing grief, and in some ways that grief has become more profound, perhaps because the world is not so focused on it,” Herbig said. “The world is trying to tell us COVID is over and move on.”

Among those who have died from COVID-19 in Hawaii are grandparents, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunties, sons, daughters — front line workers, business leaders, coaches, close friends, colleagues, neighbors — who will not be forgotten.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is sharing the stories of two lives lost, one in 2020 and the other in 2021. Their names are Art Whistler and Ia Saipaia.

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Who has died from COVID-19 in Hawaii?

As of Wednesday, Hawaii’s coronavirus-related death toll stood at 1,758. More than 600 of those 1,758 deaths occurred this year — a year dominated by the omicron subvariant. The state mortality dashboard, to date, reveals that the majority who died from COVID-19 were kupuna ages 60 and above, and numbers grew with the increase of age. But residents of all ages, including children under 18, also died from COVID-19.

>> By age, those 80+ were the most affected (36% of total deaths), with 623 per 100,000. Those in their 70s were next (21%), with 368 per 100,000, followed by those in their 60s (20%), with 347 per 100,000.

>> By ethnicity, the Pacific Islander population in Hawaii was the most affected, at 421 deaths per 100,000, followed by Filipinos, as 178 per 100,000.

>> More males (60%) died from COVID than females (40%).

>> The majority (97%) had one or more underlying health conditions.

Source: Hawaii Department of Health Mortality Dashboard