Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced the state would launch its program allowing fully vaccinated travelers to bypass its quarantine requirement for travel starting May 11. However, initially, the exemption will apply only to travelers who were vaccinated in Hawaii and are traveling between islands.
The state of Hawaii has a mandatory 10-day quarantine requirement for those arriving on an island and those traveling between islands.
Since October, travelers have been able to skip that quarantine if they could show proof of a negative COVID-19 test from one of Hawaii’s trusted testing partners taken no more than 72 hours before the final leg of departure and uploaded to the state’s Safe Travels website prior to departure.
Ige announced this month that the state would start developing a program to allow fully vaccinated travelers to skip pre-travel tests. Fully vaccinated means that travelers are traveling at least 15 days past the final dose of their shot series.
Ige said starting with Hawaii vaccinated travelers would allow the state to troubleshoot the program before implementing it more broadly.
“And, I think most importantly, learn about what kinds of bottlenecks and delays it may inject into our screening process for inter-island travel,” Ige said to reporters during a press conference announcing the logistics of the new program.
Travelers will be able to upload a copy of their vaccination card to the Safe Travels website starting May 7. The state is able to validate those records for Hawaii vaccinated travelers through its database of vaccines administered.
According to the state, 35% of Hawaii’s adult population has been vaccinated. Lt. Gov. Josh Green said the state has welcomed 2.6 million travelers since the start of the Safe Travels testing program in October. Right now, the state’s population is averaging about 80 new cases and a 1.61% positivity, a rate of infection Green said is among the lowest in the country and proof of the Safe Travels program’s effectiveness in preventing the spread of the virus.
“It’s a lot of people,” Green said referring to the number of travelers. “And we’ve been able to keep our counts (of the virus) down.”
Hawaii only accepts test results from trusted partners. The state offers a list of those approved labs on its website.
The island of Hawaii, sometimes referred to as the Big Island, does random antigen testing upon arrival. Around 25% of arriving passengers are administered a second antigen test upon arrival.
Those who test negative are able to skip quarantine.
Hawaii County mayor Mitch Roth said the island recently started checking who was vaccinated and allowing those travelers to skip that secondary test.
Maui is also exploring similar secondary testing upon arrival. Maui Mayor Mikel Victorino said tentatively the island will begin secondary testing around May 4. He said the island also planned to exempt people who have been vaccinated from that secondary test.
