Yesterday, June 16, Hawaii inter-island travel opened without a quarantine. This reopening appears to have gone very smoothly.
Along with this opening, new screening procedures were implemented. These new steps are:
- Passengers must complete and provide a mandatory traveler health form. You can download and review the form from health.hawaii.gov/travel. For efficiency, passengers are advised to download and complete the form prior to going to the airport, but no more than 24 hours prior. You can review FAQs about the new form at this link.
- Passengers turn in their completed traveler health form and get their temperature checked prior to going through the standard TSA security check.
- Persons who refuse to provide a completed traveler health form and/or have a temperature of 100.4°F will not be allowed to fly.
Hawaii News Now has a good segment worth watching as one of their reporters flew from Honolulu to the Big Island. She describes some of the procedural and social distancing changes she observed.
Hawaii government officials have been saying that lifting the inter-island quarantine along with the new screening procedures allows them to test the new processes prior to lifting the trans-Pacific quarantine. So, yesterday’s successful implementation is a step in the right direction towards eventually reopening Hawaii tourism.
Sheila Beal
