Government Officials in Hawaii Clash Over COVID Protocols for Incoming Travelers

by Jessica Montevago June 25, 2021

Government officials in Hawaii are not quite seeing eye-to-eye on COVID protocols for out-of-state visitors.

Hawaii Lt. Gov. Josh Green wants the state to drop the testing requirement for fully vaccinated travelers so they can avoid quarantine after arriving in the state ahead of the July 4 holiday,

“It’s just really important that Hawaii not get a black eye by being unclear,” Green said, adding that the state should announce the testing requirement will end July 1.

Gov. David Ige, however, would not commit to dropping the travel tests on Monday, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

The governor said earlier this month that testing requirements for vaccinated domestic travelers would end once 60% of Hawaii residents are fully vaccinated. That figure has stalled in recent weeks and currently stands at 57%.

“We do anticipate crossing that 60% threshold,” Ige said. “It is hard to predict exactly when that would happen because of the fact that the pace of vaccinations is actually slowing and the number of vaccines administered in the last week is significantly lower than the number of vaccines administered, for example, two weeks ago.”

Ige said all pandemic-related restrictions will end when 70% of residents have been vaccinated.

If officials wait until after the holiday weekend – when Hawaii expects about 30,000 daily visitors – then “we are going to have a lot of confusion and a lot of large conflicts,” Green said, according to the outlet.

Ige is monitoring vaccination rates and said any changes will be made early enough to give both travelers and companies time to prepare for the lifting of restrictions.

The State Department of Health warned that the highly contagious Delta variant is spreading. In a news release, health officials said there were have been at least three cases of the variant — SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.617.2 — associated with travel from the mainland. Two of those cases were detected on Oahu and one on the Big Island.