How to prepare for Hawaii travel now that these six big changes are looming.
85 thoughts on “Is Hawaii Travel On Brink of Disaster AGAIN With No Plans In Sight?”
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How to prepare for Hawaii travel now that these six big changes are looming.
Comments are closed.
If testing becomes a requirement for all airline passengers, the industry will switch to cargo-only with a few passenger flights here and there.
The rule-makers could give a sh..t about Hawaii or any other small population state. Start thinking about boutique farming.
Why would you think that? Hawaii tourism exploded last summer when testing was in place.
There are assumptions and then there is data. There has been over 50 million documented “cases” but only 3 million hospitalized and 800,000 deaths. While it’s possible one of these cases could end up in the hospital with any of the variants (this is what the 18th variant so far?) it is not a guarantee. Therefore cases do not equal hospitalizations. Omicron is also claimed to be highly contagious but with low risk symptoms. We have to learn to live with this virus instead of trying to play God.
No offense, SD, but I assume you are not actually on the frontlines of this? It is easy to talk about “hospitalizations” in the abstract, but you’ve got to understand that our ICUs here in the islands are tiny and we are already approaching a breaking point. Covid admissions doubled last weekend, several severe cases among them, our nurses are exhausted, there are only so many offices and meeting rooms that you can convert into Covid rooms again.
Leilani, As of 12/20/21, the Islands have 9 ICU beds being utilized by Covid patients. 181 are being used by non Covid patients. 6 ventilators by Covid patients and 78 for non-Covid.
Covid and variants aren’t the issue with “max capacity”, based on the data. The issue all locals should be looking at is why are 181 beds taken, maybe we should be focusing on healthy lifestyles and eating habits rather than vaccines that will only protect us from getting really sick, but not the virus entirely.
Aloha,
When I see people loading up on soda pop, processed foods at the grocery store there in lies the problem. I can almost guarantee you that people are on kidney dialysis bc of these two “food groups” it breaks my heart to see people eating and drinking this food. One a week is ok. Maybe. Everyday. No. I also noticed on the Big Island in Hilo there is another new dialysis center opening up. Sigh. Eat real food, exercise. Be healthy people. Connect the dots.
Couldn’t agree more Fran that a healthy lifestyle is a strong deterrent to serious Covid. But it’s certainly not a guarantee or as important as the vaccine. Sadly many people just don’t have the opportunity to fully pursue a healthy lifestyle. This is about society as a whole, rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, everyone matters.. It’s a bit simplistic to just say be healthy like me and you’ll be ok.
Quite the list of possible changes. Thanks for compiling it.
I’m a little confused as to why the 3-day testing does not work?
Since Hawaii previously required all arriving passengers to show a negative test couldn’t the State revive this policy if desired? Even the masses are finally realizing what has been tacitly acknowledged by authorities for quite a while- the shots do not prevent infection or transmission. So it seems reasonable that all (or none!) be tested.
Hi Mike.
Thanks for your many comments! The 3-test is said to be incompatible with the Omicron variant which replicates very quickly. At least that’s how we understand it and is apparently why the US had mandated tests within 1-day of all international arrivals.
The state has indicated previously that since the federal government deemed it safe for vaccinated passengers to travel, it was not clear that as a state Hawaii could now implement required testing for vaccinated passengers.
Aloha.
Thanks for the clarifications. I have Cov__ fatigue and haven’t been keeping up.
You guys do a great job and it is much appreciated. Aloha.
Hi Mike.
Thanks again.
Aloha
Aloha,
Why can’t we focus on outpatient treatment and treat this like the flu? So much wasted energy and expense to treat something that no one is studying except independent Drs. No government agencies are suggesting any proactive out patent treatment. It’s criminal. Covid is not going away but it is treatable on an out patient bases.
Mahalo for posting!
“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”
– Winston Churchill
From the beginning there should have been distinction between “cases,” ie., those who test positive but have mild or NO symptoms, and those requiring hospitalization. The numbers of “cases” scares people despite the fact that this variant rarely causes amy serious illness, and the tests are less than perfect. People need to do what they feel best for them, and them alone. It’s time for people to regain control.
Unfortunately the tests are not that great anyway. They test false positive and maybe even false negative.
I whole heartedly agree with Barbara M. We have been on the Big Island for 30 days and headed home tomorrow. A 24 hour test from a “trusted partner” would be a definite show stopper for us. The 72 hour requirement from last year was particularly onerous. Testing has now become virtually impossible to schedule in my hometown. Sadly, we won’t attempt to make the trip. I’m totally on board w/ vaccinations and would even be on board with 3 shots being definition of fully vaccinated.
Any recommendations for a family returning to Ca from Kauai this week on United?
24-hour testing sounds great but in reality is a disaster! Many folks like us spend the day prior to their Hawaii flight getting to their departure point! It would be a deal killer for us as we would have to fly to our departure city instead of drive and that would add hundreds of dollars of unexpected cost – as well as having to pray to get a testing appointment with only hours to spare before our flight to our departure city. Understand but don’t need the ANGST!
UPDATE: Whereas Xprescheck at the Phoenix Airport charges $250+ per person, having Rapid Testing done in New Mexico is $0 as the State covers the cost! (Knew we loved living here!) Only issue is that we would have to wait til a week before to get an appointment at the appropriate time and could end up driving the 7 hours to Phoenix (snow in Flagstaff?) in the dark! But $$$ are $$$! Let’s just hope they don’t do that 24 hour in advance thing! We need some breathing room!
Have you considered driving the day before? Maybe then get your test, stay the night, and off you go to Hawaii the next day?
JOERG H… Of course we have…. That means an extra day of “vacation time”, an extra $$$ for a hotel night and food, an extra day of $$$ for the dog’s boarding… It just isn’t that easy – logistically or financially. Easy to suggest – difficult to do!
We are planning to come back home to Hawaii in mid February for our usual 30 days or so. Having had to deal with Covid-19 protocols for the last 2 years I do have some comments.
1) Demanding testing within 24 of travel is not workable. Last February, CVS and Walgreens could not guarantee receiving test results in 72 hours.
2) need to get away from the “Trusted Partners” regulation and allow tests from all Hospitals to have any chance of success.
Fingers crossed!
Aloha
If requirements for those vaccinated are the same as the unvaccinated than many people who would vaccinate to make travel easier may not get vaccinated.If atest for domestic travel is required 24 hours before departure many, like myself, will cancel reservations. I have not heard or read anything on 24 hour testing for domestic travel from the federal government so hopefully Hawaii won’t implement that.
For myself,I am vaxed, boosted and will wear a mask and social distance,but that’s it for me.
The answer to that question is most certainly YES! The leadership of Hawai’i has ruined that beautiful state.
Yes, we will see a huge wave everywhere, lasting about 2 to 2 1/2 month. Don’t worry, by February the wave is back down and gone and by March. We should be back to normal. I booked my trip for April and expect no more Save Travels etc.
Ohhhh. Just wait. They’ll have a new variant. This won’t go away til 2023 at the earliest.
I suspect it will never go away and it will be like the flu, come back every year with a new strain. So it will be get your flu/COVID shot, and a booster 6 months later, every year. If you don’t you’re rolling the dice. The insurance companies will stop covering the cost of unvaccinated hospitalizations because you can prevent it by getting a simple shot. Either that or they will jack up the rates for the unvaccinated to sky-high costs.
Joerg, it’s all political. We lose 15,000-60,000 every year from flu. You don’t see any draconian measures for the flu. If they can find a way to reverse course and start to treat it like the flu, more people will get vaccinated. Right now, there’s little incentive to get the vax if we are treated like the unvaxed. My wife got shots only so we could go to Hawaii this year.
Rod you are correct…political influence is at the base of what’s going on. Covid, obviously is not the flu. We are paying the price for the unvaccinated who politicized the simple act of getting vaccinated.
If everyone who could got vaccinated did, we would be in this mess.
Wouldn’t!
John W,
It’s a real mess. I own a small company and also have a govt contract. The sh..t will hit the fan in February if I’m unable to provide enough vaccinated employees to do work on military bases. I stand a good chance of being in default. If that happens, I will probably have to close my doors after 51 years. Not the way I planned to retire. But, at this point only about 1/3 of my workers are or will get the shots. Just doubled the pay to $40/hr and still no go.
Wow, totally feel for you Rod. You have to be so frustrated with so many people making anti vax choices based on misinformation on one hand and then the vax mandate pretty much accelerates the damage done by all the misinformation out there. A mandate that will save lives has the potential to wreak havoc on many businesses bottom line. Not an easy choice but I guess that defines the times we are in. Good luck.
Thanks John. We’ll see what happens when we show up with a crew that is not fully vaccinated. I’m actually gaining confidence!
Happy Holidays!
Are we now trying to say no one can ever get a virus? Cases and hospitalizations are two different things. We are tracking everyone who tests positive which then makes it a “case”. This doesn’t mean that each of those cases will end up in the hospital or die. When are these governments going to realize that they are not God and can not prevent people from getting a virus that will continue to mutate. At some point people need to say enough is enough.
Tracking cases is in relationship to hospitalizations. Our priority had to be in keeping the Hawaiian People safe.
We track all cases. Number of cases is then broken down by the number of cases that are hospitalized. In the data it shows that 94% of cases are from the community, only 6% is from main landers. The governments job is not to ensure no one ever gets sick again and there are no cases ever. Hawaii has been locked down the longest, what did they expect to happen when they fully reopened? No one has been building any type of immunity to germs for 2 years, of course everyone is going to get sick.
SD, you’re missing Gwenn’s point. There is a direct relationship between the number of cases and the number of hospitalizations. As cases increase, so do hospitalizations and deaths. This is the reason the Omicron variant is such a huge problem. Because it appears to be much more transmissible than Delta, there will be many more cases and therefore more hospitalizations and death. Even if it’s less deadly, just the increase in cases will strain the hospital systems.
Is that “direct relationship” the same for Omicron is it is/was for Delta?
So, now there is a “variant” that produces the symptoms of the common cold and this is what you are spinning things up about!? Come on man! Way past time to just say enough already because suddenly, no one is even mentioning that old pesky “delta” variant now are they?
I’ve been debating about where to go this Spring Break with my family of 5. My oldest are 17 (twins) and the option of “family vacations” is dwindling as they move on to college and get on with their life. All of us LOVE Hawai’i. We’re super easy. Just give us a week at the Moana Surfrider and we’re happy. We’ve done other islands but when it’s the whole family, Waikiki is the place to be. However given all the unknown/strict restrictions, it looks like Orlando is the place we’re headed. 😢
Mother of 17 yo triplets here. I agree completely. Time with our children before they become adults is finite and the memories made on vacations priceless. We love Hawaii and Florida – however, Florida is the place to be free of the stress-inducing government restrictions. Life cannot be put on hold indefinitely. Hopefully, Hawaii will continue to get back to normal as well. I hope you have a wonderful time with your family whatever you decide. 🙂
But it does not present itself as a pesky cold to the immunosuppressive or cancer patients, basically a third of our population. Everyone needs to get vaccinated so that the variants stop.
We need to protect the fragile people and not quarantine healthy people.
Well Kathy, wouldn’t it be prudent for those folks with compromised health to stay home and away from other potentially germs people? Instead of suggesting the most vulnerable take precautions, our fearful leaders are using a shotgun approach and scaring everyone into forced compliance…how’s that worked out so far?
A thousand Americans a day are dying again, over 800,000 altogether. Do you really think it would be lower if people were just left to their own devices? I think that defies logic. Where I am in the Midwest, hospital beds, not just ICU beds, are 97% full. Better not have a heart attack, stroke, or accident. That’s the reality, and if anything, some people are not nearly scared enough.
Please explain what type of cases are occupying these ICU beds. Based on the latest stats, only a very small percentage are COVID cases. Before panicking about a variant that produces cold symptoms in vaccinated individuals, how about researching why so many other cases are now showing up in the ICU.
Thank you for your valuable updates as this situation changes from day to day. My husband and I have a trip coming up on the 12th of January. We’re vaccinated and boostered. Fingers crossed!
I suspect this may garner one or two comments! I’m still wondering if the numbers used to paint a dire picture are actually mostly mild cases?
If so we have Covid in a manageable place. You can protect yourself from serious illness if you want….I guess we won’t know for a few weeks if the many positive cases results in an increase in deaths or if it’s just a lot of breakthrough cases that don’t result in many hospitalizations or deaths.
Okay, let’s calm down here. First of all, are any of the U.S. Navy hospital ships in Pearl Harbor right now? Talking about the ones that President Trump sent to New York (and weren’t used by the dying elderly cases sent back to their nursing home)? Don’t shut down before your biggest vacation period: The Holidays. If we need help ask the president.
The USNS Comfort is normally berthed in Norfolk, VA. The USNS Mercy is normally berthed in San Diego, CA. Both would require a mobilization of medical personnel from elsewhere in the country (where they are probably already needed) to be of any use.
I continue to wonder why the State and individual islands have not used some of the huge amounts of funny munny (i.e. created out of thin air) given them by Trump and then Biden to bolster the hospitals and increase the number of ICU beds.
This has now been going on for almost two years yet it is the same old refrain, over and over.
Why don’t they just require a three-day test and completely stop all the other nonsense clear a simple most effective prior to a visit to Hawaii
Would it be recommended to resubmit my Covid vaccine card due to I now have my booster ? We last traveled in September to Maui and going back at the end of January.
KRISTIE D… You should upload your Covid card every time something changes. So the answer is YES!