VIDEO: Mayor Kirk Caldwell announces additonal $25 million for COVID-19 small business relief
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
People line up to administer COVID-19 tests on themselves and family members today during the second day of surge testing at Kalakaua District Park in Kalihi.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
People line up to administer COVID-19 tests on themselves and family members today during the second day of surge testing at Kalakaua District Park in Kalihi.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Honolulu mayor Kirk Caldwell performs a COVID-19 test swab as U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams watches at right during a news conference at Kalakaua District Park in Kalihi today.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced today that the City and County of Honolulu will provide an additional $25 million for the city’s small business grant program started in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
”Let’s get real. We are at war. We’re on a war footing in fighting this virus,” Caldwell said. “The only way to win a war is by all of us working together. The federal government, the state government and the city government.”
Caldwell added that discussions are also underway to improve the distribution of underutilized funds from the city’s grant program for individuals.
“We’ve got to figure out ways to energize our individual grant program … and we’re digging deeper to do exactly that,” he said.
Caldwell was joined during today’s media briefing by U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams, Gov. David Ige and Honolulu City Councilman Joey Manahan at at Kalakaua District Park in Kalihi, the site of a second day of mass COVID-19 testing on Oahu.
“Working with the mayor, we’re going to find a better way to manage the way people are being tested,” Gov. Ige said. “We do see the increasing number of cases. The reason we’re doing the shutdown is because we want to get the virus under control so we can begin the reopening process again.”
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Caldwell said 10,821 people registered for testing yesterday and today, and 1,500 joined in walk-in testing this morning at Kalakaua District Park.
“I think we learned a lot today,” the mayor said. “We see that walk-in testing actually works. People can come in, it’s not a huge back-up and it’s a steady flow.”
Testing at Kalaukaua was going to stop at 4 p.m. but it has been extended to 5 p.m., he said.
The testing is being conducted in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the State of Hawaii and the Surgeon General’s Office. Get more details about testing locations here.
Adams said members of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service will remain on Oahu for the next two weeks to help provide federal support with state and county COVID-19 efforts.
Watch the briefing via the video above or go to Mayor Caldwell’s Facebook page.
