Now it’s not the COVID-19 patients who are straining the hospitals; it’s the sick days the nurses need because they’ve come down with the virus. Filling those slots required emergency rules to allow out-of-state nurses to practice in Hawaii in their place, and last week the governor announced the rules’ approval.

That leeway is granted only for 120 days, but it will help hospitals deal with at-capacity admissions. When this is no longer needed, perhaps that’s when Hawaii can say the pandemic’s over.