Hawaii travel news: Waipio Valley off limits + Hawaii counties are dropping COVID emergency rules

– Waipio Valley Road is closed to visitors indefinitely. Access to this extremely steep, curvy and dangerous road will be limited to valley residents, farmers, property owners and lease holders with agricultural businesses. The road is in need of work to mitigate rockfalls and to address slope instability and erosion. While access to the valley will be closed to visitors, access to the spectacular valley lookout point remains open

. We have updated our Waipio Valley article accordingly.

– This week, all Hawaii counties are rescinding, repealing and/or expiring all of their county-specific, COVID emergency rules. Here are some highlights from these changes:

• Effective March 6, 2022, patrons of Oahu restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters, etc. will no longer be required to present proof of vaccination or proof of a negative test taken within 48 hours.  (Note: Maui has already dropped their similar rule, while Hawaii (Big) Island and Kauai did not have similar restrictions.)
• Gathering sizes will no longer be restricted.
• While county rules have relaxed, Hawaii’s Safe Travels program remains in effect. (There is talk that Safe Travels Hawaii may end in March or April.)

– While the CDC has issued new, relaxed guidelines on indoor masking, Governor Ige says

Hawaii will keep the indoor mask mandate for now. The current statewide emergency order that includes the indoor mask mandate is set to expire March 25, 2022. We expect to hear more about indoor masking in the coming days, weeks.