The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Hawaii
- Level
- State
- Authority
- HRS §§ 321-9, 321-10, 321-11 (rulemaking on sanitation of restaurants and food establishments); HRS § 321-18 (penalty)
- Issued
- 2014-02-24 Feb. 24, 2014
- Effective
- standing throughout 2020 Q2 to 2021 Q3 (read as 2014-02-24)
- End
- standing (amended again Aug. 24, 2025, after the period) (read as 2025-08-24)
- In force
- Standing since Feb. 24, 2014 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Business closureWorkplace rulesStanding dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- specified businesses (every permitted food establishment: restaurants, markets, food manufacturers, institutional and retail food operations); owners or operators; the person in charge; food employees and conditional employees
- Character
- sanitary code duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Hawaii DUT-HI
Operative words
The person in charge shall exclude or restrict a food employee from a food establishment... exclude a food employee if the food employee is: (A) Symptomatic with vomiting or diarrhea... [§ 11-50-11(b):] the department may issue an order... (3) Closing the food establishment by summarily suspending a permit to operate
Penalty
summary suspension of the permit to operate and closure (§ 11-50-11(b)(3), § 11-50-12(c)); orders of restriction or exclusion (§ 11-50-11(c)); misdemeanor for violation of Department rules (HRS § 321-18)
What it required
Every food establishment's owner or operator was bound to require food employees to report symptoms and diagnoses of diseases transmissible through food, the person in charge was bound to exclude or restrict symptomatic employees, and the Department held standing power, on 'reasonable cause to believe that a food employee... has possibly transmitted disease... or is affected with... acute respiratory infection,' to order restriction or exclusion 'without prior warning, notice of a hearing, or a hearing' and to close the establishment by summary suspension of its permit.
Retrieval note§ 11-50-11(a): 'The department shall act when it has reasonable cause to believe that a food employee or conditional employee has possibly transmitted disease; may be infected with a disease in a communicable form that is transmissible through food; may be a carrier of infectious agents that cause a disease that is transmissible through food; or is affected with a boil, an infected wound, or acute respiratory infection.' § 11-50-11(b): 'the department may issue an order to the suspected food employee, conditional employee, or owner or operator instituting one or more of the following control measures: (1) Restricting the food employee or conditional employee; (2) Excluding the food employee or conditional employee; or (3) Closing the food establishment by summarily suspending a permit to operate pursuant to section 11-50-12(c).' § 11-50-21(a)(1): 'The owner or operator shall require food employees and conditional employees to report to the person in charge information about their health and activities as they relate to diseases that are transmissible through food.' The exhibit is the Department's posted standard-format compilation of the Feb. 24, 2014 amendment; the Sept. 2, 2017 amendment (food handler certification for persons in charge) left §§ 11-50-11 and 11-50-21 with the same text, as the Department's June 1, 2017 draft of that amendment shows. The Department's reopening guidance for food establishments (Ex. DUT-HI-014) was written on this code's foundation.