Nearly 90% of Hawaii's state executive branch employees fully vaccinated

Sep. 25—Nearly 90 % of Hawaii's state employees have been vaccinated against—an increase of about 3 % since last month—according to the state Department of Human Resources Development.

DHRD reported today that as of Sept. 13 88.8 % of employees in the state's executive branches have been vaccinated, while 2.6 % are partially vaccinated and 8.6 % are not vaccinated. According to updated numbers from Aug. 16, 85.6 % of executive branch employees were fully vaccinated, 5.1 % of partially vaccinated and 9.3 % were not vaccinated.

"I am pleased with the vaccination rates for the state's executive branch employees. A highly vaccinated work population not only protects our workplaces, co-workers and our families, but it decreases the likelihood of interruptions in state services, " said Gov. David Ige in a statement.

Three employees have been fired for not complying with requiring state and county employees to show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, which went into effect Aug. 16.

All DHRD employees are vaccinated, making it the only department with 100 % of its employees who are fully vaccinated. The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism has the second highest vaccination rate at 95.4 %, followed by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations at 95 %.

Just 79.4 % of Department of Public Safety employees are fully vaccinated, making it the least vaccinated department. It's followed by the 84.9 % of Department of Transportation employees who are vaccinated and 87.8 % at the Department of Human Services employees.

DOT, DPS and DHS are three of the four largest executive branch departments in Hawaii, with 2, 180, 2, 135 and 1, 823 total employees respectively. The largest department is the Department of Health, and 91.8 % of its 2, 366 employees have been fully vaccinated.

DHRD, DBEDT and DLIR have 112, 260 and 562 employees, respectively.

There are 17 executive branch departments in Hawaii.

"The State of Hawai ʻi has continued its upward trend, increasing the executive branch's fully vaccinated rate by more than 3 % in the last month. Additionally, more employees have chosen to initiate vaccinations, moving us towards a more fully vaccinated and safer population, " said DHRD Director Ryker Wada in a statement. "I remain optimistic that the state will continue to increase its vaccination rate in the coming months."

More than 300 employees have joined the executive branch since Ige's vaccination-or-test mandate went into effect, and are not included in DHRD's data.