On one level, the protests that have flared against the stay-at-home orders nationwide amount to a primal scream against conditions that have been devastating to millions of people.

Finding the right balance, weighing public-health risk against economic peril and loss of freedoms, is the excruciatingly difficult problem Hawaii and other states now face.

But reviewing the limitation of disease-testing capabilities, here and across the country, it should be plain that Hawaii is not yet prepared to significantly relax the mandates in place.

The coronavirus pandemic that’s the impetus for these orders has killed around 160,000 worldwide. Although Hawaii has held its number of cases below 600 and fatalities to 10 thus far, COVID-19 is a disease that public health agencies must work to avert.

But at what cost? Critics of the restrictions of public movement are asking that question, because what also makes this scourge so fearsome is its economic repercussions.

Although so far Hawaii has escaped the brunt of the disease itself, the economic damage has been brutal, owing to the state’s dependence on tourism. The same barriers that have kept out travelers also have given Hawaii its sad ranking near the top of the nation for the most job losses.

And beyond even the plunge into unemployment, there is the basic civil-liberties question that figures in most policy debates.

Both of these issues to varying degrees factored into Honolulu’s small but pointed protest on Sunday.

A caravan of some 50 vehicles crossed Oahu, traveling from the state Capitol to Kapolei, displaying messages about the need to “reopen” the country. Participants objected to the governmental intrusion in business and personal activities.

The state has not had a perfect record in executing its mitigations plan, to be sure. To begin with, it took the mayors to blaze the trail on this before Gov. David Ige hardened the state’s response with unified messaging.

And enforcement of his travel shutdown has been flawed: The river of incoming tourists has withered to a trickle, but some were inadequately tracked to ensure compliance with quarantining orders.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority is working on closing some of those gaps by checks of visitor contact information before they scatter from the airports, and that’s a good course correction.

Other complaints trace to Ige’s Friday decision to tighten restrictions of activities at beaches and on trails. Some of that is defensible — nobody wants to see Miami-style crowds in parks — but it doesn’t make sense to ban walking and running along the beach, as long as distancing is maintained. Ige should rethink that one.

Further, some decisions show how the quick-evolving coronavirus situation can overtake policy. Mayor Kirk Caldwell closed fabric stores, among other “nonessential” businesses, out of concern that crowds were flocking there for material to make masks. The closure was for public protection, but seemed to run up against an emerging recommendation for masks. The fabric-store closure was rescinded and modified for social distancing.

People do recoil against what they see as pointless constraints of behavior that is not threatening to public safety, and officials need to be conscious of that at the outset.

But in the end, only more testing and contact tracing can provide a clearer sense of where the virus has penetrated into the community. Businesses could then slowly reopen in phases under strict behavioral guidelines, with state readiness to clamp down on any new infections, until the outbreak is truly under control.

When the public can have confidence in a reasonable degree of safety, that would be the logical time for the “new normal” to begin.