If you’re visiting Hawaii in the near future, or at the holidays, this news is critical.
331 thoughts on “CVS Pulls Out Of Hawaii Testing | Vault + Others Overwhelmed”
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Home » Blog » Hawaii Travel Tips » CVS Pulls Out Of Hawaii Testing | Vault + Others Overwhelmed
We will be returning from Georgia. Not many options available to us. I hope they will approve the rapid test.
Rapid Diagnostic Test (ID NOW) from Walgreens was accepted. It was a Rapid Point of Care NAAT. Information can be found on there website.
Just stay home, Jesus… what is this selfish mindset about vacationing to a secluded chain of islands with limited healthcare capacity. Don’t come to Kauai for sure.. we have all the selfishness we can handle for a while and 9 ICU beds. We are blessed our mayor has asked to completely opt out if this safe travels nonsense …. There are no safe travels during a global pandemic. There is no aloha right now.
Do be cautious about Wednesday travel to Hawaii since testing can be done on a Sunday but cannot ship out with UPS Air until Monday night. Our stat service gave us results in the early hours of Wednesday am once our first leg of travel was completed within the continental USA.
Which service did you use? I have a Wednesday morning departure as well and have the Vault tests in hand
Thank you! still missing in this list is Quest. We strongly recommend against using them. We took our test with them two weeks ago, and by the time we were ready to board our flight, we called them and discovered that our tests hadn’t even been sent to the lab yet. They couriered them over, but it ended up taking about 80 hours. We spoke to a number of other travelers who also ended up in quarantine because their quest results took three to five days to come back.
CB…
Quest Diagnostics has opted out of the Trusted Partner program. They are still on the list but if you click on them, you will see that notice.
The Grandparents are stuck in Seattle tonight traveling from Florida to Honolulu.
Their CVS test results weren’t in time to make their connecting flight, came in just a few hours later, about 75 hours after testing. They have an appointment with Carbon Health now and will be stuck in Seattle for Thanksgiving until those results come back.
We would love to fly them out tomorrow, but their test results will be 4 days old and now unacceptable. The Safe Travels website did not accept the test results, pops an error that says “Outside 72 hour window” instead of “COVOD-Negative”.
This is a terrible change to an effective program. It was carelessly implemented right before a major holiday. Now my 75 year old parents won’t get to see the keiki until after the holiday.
Paul,
I get your you are sad and frustrated but your family choose to take the risks associated with travel during the pandemic. Your family won’t be together for the holidays because of the testing snafu but many families aren’t gathering together for this holiday to try and help slow the spread of COVID which your family isn’t by having a non household gathering and traveling across the country. Also be thankful your parent’s are among those not taken by COVID-19 whose families now have that void at their households Thanksgiving table….
Just a different way to look at things….
PAUL G…
This whole thing is one sad mess. And BTW, don’t plan on Christmas or New Years. What is a bad situation now will be even worse when testing facilities don’t work full time.
Trying to understand for our future flight, Were your grandparents not able to take the flight w/o their test results or could they have taken the flight and be stuck in 14 day quarantine?
Tested with Walgreens 80 hours ago and still haven’t gotten my results back, I had to do another test at the airport with the Kidney Foundation Hawaii and it took 5 hours. This is the very best for inter island travel and I highly recommend it. $125 and it am very happy. Thank you for keeping us updated
Hi Nancy.
Sorry to hear about the delay but glad it worked out in the end.
Aloha.
We ordered two tests through let’s get checked for travel on American airlines to Hawaii to visit my daughter who’s stationed there in the Navy. the problem with the new system is that you have to get tested get the results back in hand and travel within a 72-hour time period which is almost impossible. We received our tests and they are set up to not be able to be activated until the 72-hour window starts, but the problem is the airline changed our second flight to 4 hours earlier but we couldn’t take the test 4 hours earlier we still had to wait for the original window for when I purchased the tests. I called let’s get checked but they were unable to change the activation schedule. We took the tests at the first scheduled time which was 5:00 p.m. eastern time and had set up a pickup through UPS between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. UPS never came to pick up the packages. I called UPS they said they had tried but we’re unsuccessful. I was outside waiting at my front door from 5:45 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.. no one from UPS ever came. Numerous phone calls realizing that no one would help me I drove down the road to the UPS facility nearest me and waited for one of the drivers to come back and handed my packages to him and pleaded with him to try to get it overnighted so that I could see my daughter which I haven’t seen in almost a year now. I’m not sure if it’s going to reach its destination in time to get the results back in time but I still have hope. If my results come back too late then I would be forced to quarantine there for 14 days even if they come back negative which doesn’t make any sense. They should have left it the way it was.
Thank you for your daughter’s service to this county in the Navy.
However, the changes to the State’s travel program were needed for a few reasons:
1) Removing the administrative burden form the state who was having to clear a large number of travelers participating in the safe travels program from quarantine once the negative test results were received
2) For people waiting for testing results, they had to make changes to their plans for accommodation, transportation etc because the some of state’s and county’s quarantine restrictions don’t all for vacation rentals or car rentals for people in quarantine status
3) The issue of people receiving positive tests after arriving in Hawaii. These people have to find a place to quarantine and could possibly be putting additional stress on the county’s limited healthcare system should they need medical attention.
While they aren’t perfect and make it more difficult for travelers interested in participating in the safe travels program, they are improvements in making the program safer and run more smoothly.
I truly hope that things work out for you!
We had our tests done on Nonday and flew on Wednesday. The company was Carbon Health in Portland. Results in a few hours. Their mobile lab was set up outside the Alaaka Airlines terminal. Cold Outside, but very easy.
And US Biotek? They are here in Portland, guarantee results in 36 hours.dy No recommendation? I already have an appointment.
Carbon was super easy. They are known to cated just outside the Alaskan Terminsl at PDX. We had our results same day.
Wow! The typos. Located outside the reeminal
aloha and happy Thanksgiving to all !
more than anything we want the people of hawaii safe and healthy.
we want to comment on everyone’s posts about all of hawaii travel stresses and headaches
we have ohana in oahu and a timeshare in kaanapali,maui. we visit twice a year.
like a lot of people we have canceled a trip “home” for thanksgiving and now a march trip is looking shaky at best.
we want what is best for the hawaiian people during this horrible pandemic.
for us the complex testing travel rules are so confusing and frustrating.
we’ve read all of the travel rules stories here and it is difficult and scary for anyone trying to do the right thing and being healthy and getting tested before departure.
sorry to say but to gov.ige and the state rules, the rules are age discrimination because alot of senior citizens like us do not have very good computer,tech skills for all of the downloads,pcf files needed etc.
do we need a stanford computer engineering degree to understand and do this correctly ??? not everyone regardless of age is capable of these rules expected.
sorry but it is heartbreaking to think we won’t see our ohana for a year from now.
please stay safe and healthy, we need to stay strong and we’ll be able to go home to hawaii as soon as possible.
Aloha,
I’m going back to Honolulu from SAN Jose on 12/2, I tried but no hope can book any test appointment in my area.
If no test done, can I board the plane, just quarantine 14 days after arrive ?
we live in Coeur d’Alene Idaho and 30 min due west from spokane. cvs is not an option, quest diagnostics only site that was a previous testing option is 7 hours away, but we have 8 labs between Coeur d’Alene Idaho and Spokane, Washington. Walgreens has only 1 red dot rapid pcr test site and can’t an appointment let alone a mum and her kids. oh yes btw Quest diagnostics doesn’t do your children. Non of the others are with in 7 hours drive south 5 hours west over Snoqualmie pass and were in winter. its ridiculous trying to comply. Dead in the water with no ears. Hopefully they will allow clia labs not just a few designated.
I’ve seen tests from free to 250.00
oye vey
Hi Carla.
Yes oy vey is right. Do you already have air reservations? Otherwise, Seattle testing is looking like a much more reliable option.
Aloha.
CARLA G…
BTW, Quest Diagnostics is no longer a Trust Partner. They opted out because they couldn’t meet the criteria. They are still listed but if you click on them, you will see that notice.