Initial Results of Hawaii COVID Contact Tracking Survey Just Released

News Release from Pacific Urban Resilience Lab, April 5, 2020

The Pacific Urban Resilience Lab today released its initial estimates of spreading and containment potential for COVID-19 in Hawaii. 

This research is based on self-reported behaviors by approximately 11,000 Hawaii residents who participated in an electronic survey during the last week of March 2020.  

Questions in the survey included “do you live in the same household as someone who is exhibiting symptoms or is confirmed to have COVID-19;” and “have you or members of your household returned from a trip within the last 14 days.” Other questions pertained to travel behavior, quarantine, sheltering, transportation mode, and more.

“We have received an overwhelming response from the Hawaii community – more than 11,000 surveys were completed in just five days — to support our efforts to track the spread of COVID-19 throughout our state,” says Karl Kim, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at University of Hawaii. “We are grateful for the aloha spirit of the people who responded. These results are a source of optimism and caution. There are many serious ‘distancers’ but there are also potential ‘spreaders’ who continue to go to work or to gatherings with family and friends.”

Key takeaways from this initial analysis include:

• Only 2% of the respondents report being in households with symptoms or confirmed cases of COVID-19;
• A quarter of the surveyed population, (nearly 24%) report symptoms that could be a result of having COVID-19;
• 3% report continuing to attend to gatherings with family and friends – even after the Hawaii stay at home order went into effect on March 25;
• Grocery/drug store trips (31%) was the most common reason respondents left their home;
• 3% of survey participants (366) report returning from a trip within the last 14 days;
• 17% report household members over the age of 65;
• 25% of respondents report having a chronic medical condition.

Results are preliminary, and should not be interpreted as representative across Hawaii households. “We are continually working to improve the representativeness of our sampling, and will be building more advanced geospatial and temporal models to better isolate the sick, infected, spreaders and distancers,” added Kim.

To learn more about contact tracking or to complete the Hawaii COVID Contact Tracking Survey visit www.hawaiifightscovid.org/. All data will be kept confidential in a secure database.

More information on the results of the Hawaii COVID Contact Tracking Survey will be posted by the Hawaii Data Collaborative in the coming days at www.hawaiidata.org/covid19.