Note that this article was originally published February 16, 2022. In an early March update, Hawaii’s governor announced that the state’s Safe Travels program will end on March 25, 2022.
As we shared last week, leaders have begun to talk about ending the Safe Travels Hawaii program. That program requires travelers to Hawaii to provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative test result in order to avoid a five-day quarantine.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser hosted a live video chat with Hawaii’s Lt. Gov. Green on Monday. The beginning of the conversation focuses on the lower case counts and the possible end of Safe Travels Hawaii. The Lt. governor says that he expects that “sometime in March” Hawaii will be able to move away from the Safe Travels restrictions.
It was less than a month ago that leaders were moving towards adding a booster requirement for the vaccine quarantine exemption. Why the sudden shift? What’s changed? Cases and hospitalizations have dropped from the January 21st peak. On top of that, the National Guard support goes away March 17th and the federal funding goes away around April 1st.
Lt. Gov. Green said that Hawaii’s indoor mask mandate will likely be the last restriction to go. He didn’t indicate how much longer the indoor mask mandates may be in effect.
We’ve embedded the video chat below or you can watch it via this link. The first five minutes focus on the possible end to Safe Travels Hawaii and shifting gears back towards “normal.”
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It's prudent to adapt to the situation and science. As cases fall and vaccination rates go up it makes sense to end the vaccine/test mandate. However, as we've learned, the pandemic doesn't monitor case counts or mandates. Should the situation change there may need to be a resumption of travel restrictions. If that occurs let's hope that the Government communication of the restrictions is better than this time.