Lt. Gov. Inexperienced’s October 1st press convention discussing Hawaii’s new COVID-19 pre-travel testing program

We’ve watched and rewatched Lieutenant Governor Green’s October 1st press conference outlining particulars of Hawaii’s COVID-19 pre-travel testing program. We’ve summarized the press convention beneath. Welcome to bullet level metropolis!

The lieutenant governor described the content material of his press convention as  “…the fundamental, rock-solid info of what it’s going to seem like come October 15th.” Among the info, you most likely already know, however a few of it’s new info.

Hawaii’s pre-travel check plan, to ensure that guests to be exempt from quarantine, will work as follows:

• Begins Thursday, October 15, 2020
• For inbound passengers from the U.S. Mainland solely at the beginning. Worldwide passengers can be addressed later.
• Exams have to be FDA Licensed Nucleic Acid Amplification Take a look at (NAAT) from a licensed CLIA Lab. No antibody or antigen checks can be accepted presently.
• The check might be taken no sooner than 72 hours earlier than the departure of the final leg of the traveler’s flight itinerary. Hawaii can be accommodating to vacationers with air journey delays which can be out of the traveler’s management.
• Kids ages 4 and below won’t be required to be examined. Subsequently, youngsters ages 5 and up have to be examined.
• The check outcome have to be damaging to be exempt from the 14-day quarantine. (If the check result’s optimistic, the individual shouldn’t journey. Inexperienced famous the individual ought to defer their journey, reschedule or get a refund. He additionally famous that that the airways have been beneficiant in theses circumstances when persons are sick.)

Right here’s how journey to Hawaii is designed with the brand new procedures and assuming all the pieces works as deliberate:

1. After reserving journey to Hawaii, all individuals ages 18 and up should register their journey plans at https://travel.hawaii.gov. (That is the Secure Travels kind.)
2. No sooner than 72 hours earlier than departure time of the ultimate leg, all individuals ages 5 and up should get examined by the permitted technique.
3. Inside 24 hours earlier than journey, vacationers should log into their Secure Travels account and full the Journey Well being Questionnaire. Then a QR code can be supplied by the system.
4. Assuming the traveler receives a damaging check outcome earlier than arrival, the individual uploads their outcome into their Secure Travels account. Per https://hawaiicovid19.com/travel/ vacationers are requested to keep up proof of their damaging check outcomes.
5. In Hawaii, all guests are to put on a masks and socially distance.

After all, there are a number of extra “what if” situations by means of the brand new procedures. The essential ones to spotlight are:

• If a customer doesn’t obtain their check outcome by the point they arrive in Hawaii, they need to quarantine in a resort or motel till they obtain a damaging check outcome. After they do obtain a damaging check outcome, they’re to add it into their Secure Travels account.
• If a traveler receives a optimistic check outcome after arrival, they need to quarantine for the complete period of their illness.
• If a traveler doesn’t pre-travel check, they need to quarantine for 14 days.

So far as trusted testing companions, the lieutenant governor supplied these particulars and insights.

• Walgreens, CVS and Kaiser are all permitted testing companions. The price of the check is the accountability of the traveler. Inexperienced indicated that Kaiser has stated they are going to provide testing for his or her members for free of charge.
• As the beginning of testing won’t be related till October 12th, the testing companions could not have a lot if any info at the moment supplied on their web sites or storefronts till nearer to the time when checks might be taken.
• For vacationers with youngsters ages 5 years and up, they might want to test with testing companions for any age restrictions. It seems that some testing companions could check youngsters ages seven and older.
• Finally, https://hawaiicovid19.com/travel can be uploaded with a matrix of testing companions and age necessities.
• There can be test-at-home companions with mail-in testing, however the technique of acquiring the check pattern have to be noticed through telehealth.
• Some airways have introduced testing choices accessible from a handful of main U.S. cities. These testing choices are permitted for journey to Hawaii. A few of these choices could embrace mail-in testing, drive-through testing, same-day testing. Some testing could happen within the neighborhood of the airport or on the airport. Extra testing choices/places/airline choices are anticipated sooner or later. Right here’s what’s been introduced thus far:
  • United Airways – link to their press launch
  • Hawaiian Airways – link to their press launch
  • American Airways – link to their press launch
  • Alaska Airways – link to their press launch

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Different attention-grabbing info that was shared within the press convention about reopening tourism are:

• In the beginning, at finest, Hawaii is barely anticipating 5,000 to eight,000 guests arriving per day. Observe that that is down from 30,000 to 35,000 previous to COVID-19.
• The lieutenant governor estimates that maybe one in a thousand arrivals may very well have COVID-19 that was not discovered within the testing and screening course of.
• A voluntary, second check could also be supplied to guests as soon as they’re in Hawaii. This check can be used to confirm that the methods are limiting the virus from being introduced in by guests. This thought/plan is below growth.
• The lieutenant governor hinted that a number of the islands could undertake additional necessities. The island/county mayors and the governor are at the moment discussing this difficulty. (See our clarification of how the island counties are organized.) That is the present wildcard within the matter.
• Multi-island journey could develop into difficult, particularly if the partially re-instated, inter-island quarantine continues to be in place. See this link for inter-island quarantine necessities.

We encourage you to watch and listen to the October 1st press conference for your self. With because of Hawaii Information Now, we’ve embedded the press convention video:

Observe that every one the knowledge contained on this article is correct on the time of publishing on October 2, 2020. Many elements are very a lot topic to alter.

One more, “bigger” press convention is deliberate for Tuesday, October sixth.

For additional clarification of the above info in addition to different questions, you’ll have, please learn by means of the numerous questions and solutions at https://hawaiicovid19.com/travel.