Currently, in my state of Oregon, they are saying we have a shortage of tests, and only those with symptoms can be tested. We have a trip planned in January and I sure hope things get more organized or we won’t be able to go!
Julie H
Wouldn’t it make more sense for travellers to have a negative test before boarding the plane to fly to Hawaii? If not, you could have one traveller waiting to take a test when they arrive who has C0vid and has now infected everyone else who already has tests showing they are negative. It doesn’t really make sense.
Marilyn C.
I agree that testing take place prior to going to HI. It may be a problem for some travelers but it beats contracting Covid on the flight to HI.
Rich
you said we were supposed to get info on testing and other updates yesterday. What happened ?
Carrie L.
The HTA website dropped the NAAT wording. It now says “The FDA-approved test from a CLIA-certified laboratory will need to be done prior to arrival.”
Carrie L.
Thank you for the excellent updates. I am watching the news now and it sounds like they want to back out of the Aug 1 date for testing. Is this for real? And I thought the testing concession was in response to the lawsuit that it is illegal to restrict movement across state borders. How does this change?
I’m not sure why Hawaii doesn’t contract with one of those rapid testing firms from Korea and just administer at the airport. Visitors and residents. I’d guess that’s actually safer than what the the government is doing now. Then Hawaii would actually be in control of the process rather than this bureaucratic nightmare. Pick the test that they want and offer it.
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Carrie.
Thank you.
Aloha.
Jared X
The whole “testing before you fly to Hawaii” scheme is even more pointless and misguided than the quar antine. But, hey, “Welcome to Hawaii–the land of disfunctional government!” No surprises there.
Again, the goal never should have been and should never be zero cases in Hawaii. Sure, pre-February and even pre-March, everything we were hearing out of places like Italy–and then later, out of places like New York–was apocalypic–with very high mortality rates reported early on. But that simply has not been the case in Hawaii at all–ever. In Hawaii county there have been only 97 total known cases–with only THREE even requiring any sort of hospitalization (all recently)–and ZERO deaths. That’s a 0% mortality rate–and only a 3% hospitalization rate. In Kaui county, the results are virtually the same. Only 43 known cases, only ONE person hospitalized–and ZERO deaths. Maui county has had a few deaths (6) out of 130 cases–mostly early on and mostly elderly. And, of course, Honolulu / Oahu–with the largest and most diverse population–and with by far the largest number of daily arrivals (+/- 30,000 people per day before the quarantine was imposed) has had only THIRTEEN deaths–out of 842 known cases–over a period of FOUR months… a mortality rate of +/- 1.5% for known infected persons–again, mostly elderly–and mostly BEFORE we knew what we were dealing with–or how to deal with IT.
Almost without exception, nationally and locally, the mortality rate from C0VID-19 has been in decline–as testing and treatments have improved–and as infections and deaths have moved from mainly the elderly and infirmed to a broader cross-section of the general popluation. What we now know–factually–that we absolutely did not know back in February or March–is that: (1) with common sense precautions–like social distancing and mask wearing–and to a much lesser degree, “hand washing” / sanitizing everything in site (which is mostly just a boondoggle to create jobs, decrease legal liability, and make people “feel” safer)–we can can greatly diminsh the spread of the virus and (2) the infection rates are MUCH higher than we originally imagined–meaning that hospitalization and mortality rates across the broad spectrum of the population are MUCH lower than originally thought. Sure, they’re still higher than, say, the seasonal flu… but they aren’t catastrophic, either.
The point of this being that it is not even necessary to test or even quar antine incoming travelers to Hawaii–though if the state(s) and the feds can get their .. together quickly and figure out how to do that quickly–ACCURATELY–and affordably–there’s certainly no reason not to integrate that into the re-opening model for the state of Hawaii. We all know now that this thing is real–and we’re all used to wearing masks and social distancing and sanitizing–and the health care systems are (or at least SHOULD BE) well prepared by now, to handle increases in things like testing and diagnosis and treatment of infected individuals–both locals and visitors. The reality is that if we’re all walking around with masks on and taking the correct precautions–and a few people out there ARE infected–we should have a VERY low chance of catching the virus from them–and if we do happen to catch it, we should have a VERY high probability of recovering from it quickly uneventfully. And those at higher risks can and should take great precautions until a vaccine has been developed–which is certainly many months if not years away.
Even if the state of Hawaii removed all travel restrictions and quar antines TOMORROW, it would take MANY months–probably several YEARS–for tourist / inbound travel levels to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels. The airlines aren’t even flying enough flights to Hawaii right now to bring more than a few hundred to a few thousand more people a day here. So, that gives us even MORE time to prepare. We went from 30,000 arrivals a day to 300 in very short period of time. Even with travel restrictions lifted tomorrow I doubt we’d be back to 3000 arrivals for many months. Most of the people coming back and forth would be friends, family, residents, business travelers, people with second homes / repeat visitors–who would ultimately have very limited and easily traceable contact with other locals.
Sure, the infection rate would likely pop up to slightly higher–but certainly MANAGEABLE levels in the short to medium term. And, if and when that happened, the state and the counties could continue tweaking and adjusting their policies and procedures to respond to and manage those events quickly to squash them… just as other countries–like Vietnam and S. Korea (and others) have been doing this entire time very effectively–without prolonged shut downs.
What’s the rush? You might ask? Well, for one, it’s no rush. Were 4 months into this thing already–and the financial and social costs to the state and counties–and businesses–and people of Hawaii have already been enormous. The state of Hawaii was already involvent to the tune around $5,000,000,000 dollars even BEFORE the shutdown and quarantine started–essentially choking off a huge percentage of the state’s revenue base. But guess what? Your property taxes are still due. Your school taxes are still due. Your income taxes are still due. Virtually ALL state and county employees are STILL getting paid. So, essentially, the state and the counties have just been charging all of these new, COVID-19 expenses to a giant credit card account… that is owed, due, and payable by the citizens and taxpayers of Hawaii… that alreay had an overdue balance of $5 BILLION dollars–while at the same time, state tax revenues have completely collapsed (by 50%).
The cost to taxpayers–per day–is easily in the $12,0000,000 per DAY mark–probably closer to double that. How? Because public spending has not decreased AT ALL–in fact it is likely much INCREASED–while at the same time, general fund revnues have halved. And that does not take into consideration ANY of the lost revenue to local business–which is easily in the billions of dollars.
Sure, human life is precious and all that. But HOW precious? $100,000,000 per person? $1,000,000,000? More? At some point, we have to be honest with ourselves and do that math.
James B
Your logic has already been tested. Hopefully, you have read the results: Arizona: 25% POSITIVE test results; Florida: Highest daily positive rates for a state since the beginning of the pandemic; Texas: Strain on most larger hospitals’ ability to cope with rising case numbers.
ALL made the same arguments you made. ALL chose the wrong bet. If your goal is to stop the spread, your methodology is sorely lacking.
Harvey H.
I was going to comment on this article, but Jared X has hit the nail on the head. I would only add, the entire premise at the beginning of this shutdown was “15 days the slow the spread” then it was “flatten the curve” to keep hospitals from being overrun. Then it was “we’ll bribe you (with your own money) to stay at home while we figure this thing out.” Now Hawaii’s government has transformed into some insane gambit to ensure that nobody even gets sick on the island.
People are getting sick at the highest rates we have seen, but death rates cannot be hidden, and they are WAY lower than we were initially told. Remember that it was proclaimed to be 5%? Now, we’re seeing that number was too high by a factor of TEN. That is insane, and puts it around the same rate as the flu. Look for a chart that overlays total cases and total deaths… if you can even find one, you will see that the two only have a loose association, and that cases have ballooned at a much higher rate over the last month and a half compared to deaths. It just isn’t the threat it has been made out to be. Isolate the old and infirm, stop throwing people on ventilators, and treat this illness with the methods that we have seen work.
Paul C
How many of your personal friends and family are you willing to sacrifice Harvey? 1? 10? 100? Hawaii are ISLANDS 20 million people show up from all around the world and infect the entire islands? they have NO place to go. I sincerely hope you find an alternative and DO NOT visit Hawaii. None of us want people with entitled attitudes [edited].
Wendy N
Myself and 5 of my family have reservations Aug 1st to the 9th. We have already rebooked our trip. We have no problem with the state request for a C0vid test. In fact, it eases my mind. We are getting so close to leaving, and I have been trying to not let any of my family be concerned that we have no clue yet how we are getting these test to your state within 72 hrs before we go. But, I’m starting to get nervous. This is an extremely expensive trip that the owner of the property has been so kind to rebook with no fee. But, if we cant get results before flying, I may not get a refund again.
I know you probably have this question asked more times than I could imagine… But, could you please tell me if you think this trip will REALLY happen, or should I start preparing my family once again that we will not be going.
Thank you for your response in advance.
Wendy
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Wendy.
Yes totally frustrating to not know. We do hope to have clarification on August 1 soon, but that is obviously out of our control.
Aloha..
Anthony P.
Hello, do you have any idea what the difference is between the naat and pcr covid tests. I can’t find any info at all on naat tests.
Thank you very much!
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Anthony.
Others have said in comments what they have learned. We’ll provide more information as soon as we have it.
Aloha.
Timber S
I am super curious about this too… my trip is August 1st ( originally I’m June ) not sure if I should cancel now. Keep us updated thank you
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Timer.
Will do.
Aloha.
Barry R
Timber – my daughter and her fiance travel Aug 1 also. I think you will make it! Surely they’ll make some changes or else no one will come.
Barry R
Never mind:(
Lisa S
We are August 15th. Please, keep us posted on your process. You are like the canary in the mine.
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Lisa.
Thanks.
Aloha.
Joan H
Thank for keeping us informed. This sounds very complicated and we may be rescheduling our August 21st trip to Maui not by choice, this will be our second reschedule, better safe than sorry.
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Joan.
Thanks.
Aloha.
Sharie
Good morning.
If we are vacationing from the mainland to Hawaii and have the test results, will we have to take another test to come back to the mainland?
Thank you,
Sharie
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Sharie.
No, you will not.
Aloha.
Comments are closed.
Aloha!
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Currently, in my state of Oregon, they are saying we have a shortage of tests, and only those with symptoms can be tested. We have a trip planned in January and I sure hope things get more organized or we won’t be able to go!
Wouldn’t it make more sense for travellers to have a negative test before boarding the plane to fly to Hawaii? If not, you could have one traveller waiting to take a test when they arrive who has C0vid and has now infected everyone else who already has tests showing they are negative. It doesn’t really make sense.
I agree that testing take place prior to going to HI. It may be a problem for some travelers but it beats contracting Covid on the flight to HI.
you said we were supposed to get info on testing and other updates yesterday. What happened ?
The HTA website dropped the NAAT wording. It now says “The FDA-approved test from a CLIA-certified laboratory will need to be done prior to arrival.”
Thank you for the excellent updates. I am watching the news now and it sounds like they want to back out of the Aug 1 date for testing. Is this for real? And I thought the testing concession was in response to the lawsuit that it is illegal to restrict movement across state borders. How does this change?
I’m not sure why Hawaii doesn’t contract with one of those rapid testing firms from Korea and just administer at the airport. Visitors and residents. I’d guess that’s actually safer than what the the government is doing now. Then Hawaii would actually be in control of the process rather than this bureaucratic nightmare. Pick the test that they want and offer it.
Hi Carrie.
Thank you.
Aloha.
The whole “testing before you fly to Hawaii” scheme is even more pointless and misguided than the quar antine. But, hey, “Welcome to Hawaii–the land of disfunctional government!” No surprises there.
Again, the goal never should have been and should never be zero cases in Hawaii. Sure, pre-February and even pre-March, everything we were hearing out of places like Italy–and then later, out of places like New York–was apocalypic–with very high mortality rates reported early on. But that simply has not been the case in Hawaii at all–ever. In Hawaii county there have been only 97 total known cases–with only THREE even requiring any sort of hospitalization (all recently)–and ZERO deaths. That’s a 0% mortality rate–and only a 3% hospitalization rate. In Kaui county, the results are virtually the same. Only 43 known cases, only ONE person hospitalized–and ZERO deaths. Maui county has had a few deaths (6) out of 130 cases–mostly early on and mostly elderly. And, of course, Honolulu / Oahu–with the largest and most diverse population–and with by far the largest number of daily arrivals (+/- 30,000 people per day before the quarantine was imposed) has had only THIRTEEN deaths–out of 842 known cases–over a period of FOUR months… a mortality rate of +/- 1.5% for known infected persons–again, mostly elderly–and mostly BEFORE we knew what we were dealing with–or how to deal with IT.
Almost without exception, nationally and locally, the mortality rate from C0VID-19 has been in decline–as testing and treatments have improved–and as infections and deaths have moved from mainly the elderly and infirmed to a broader cross-section of the general popluation. What we now know–factually–that we absolutely did not know back in February or March–is that: (1) with common sense precautions–like social distancing and mask wearing–and to a much lesser degree, “hand washing” / sanitizing everything in site (which is mostly just a boondoggle to create jobs, decrease legal liability, and make people “feel” safer)–we can can greatly diminsh the spread of the virus and (2) the infection rates are MUCH higher than we originally imagined–meaning that hospitalization and mortality rates across the broad spectrum of the population are MUCH lower than originally thought. Sure, they’re still higher than, say, the seasonal flu… but they aren’t catastrophic, either.
The point of this being that it is not even necessary to test or even quar antine incoming travelers to Hawaii–though if the state(s) and the feds can get their .. together quickly and figure out how to do that quickly–ACCURATELY–and affordably–there’s certainly no reason not to integrate that into the re-opening model for the state of Hawaii. We all know now that this thing is real–and we’re all used to wearing masks and social distancing and sanitizing–and the health care systems are (or at least SHOULD BE) well prepared by now, to handle increases in things like testing and diagnosis and treatment of infected individuals–both locals and visitors. The reality is that if we’re all walking around with masks on and taking the correct precautions–and a few people out there ARE infected–we should have a VERY low chance of catching the virus from them–and if we do happen to catch it, we should have a VERY high probability of recovering from it quickly uneventfully. And those at higher risks can and should take great precautions until a vaccine has been developed–which is certainly many months if not years away.
Even if the state of Hawaii removed all travel restrictions and quar antines TOMORROW, it would take MANY months–probably several YEARS–for tourist / inbound travel levels to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels. The airlines aren’t even flying enough flights to Hawaii right now to bring more than a few hundred to a few thousand more people a day here. So, that gives us even MORE time to prepare. We went from 30,000 arrivals a day to 300 in very short period of time. Even with travel restrictions lifted tomorrow I doubt we’d be back to 3000 arrivals for many months. Most of the people coming back and forth would be friends, family, residents, business travelers, people with second homes / repeat visitors–who would ultimately have very limited and easily traceable contact with other locals.
Sure, the infection rate would likely pop up to slightly higher–but certainly MANAGEABLE levels in the short to medium term. And, if and when that happened, the state and the counties could continue tweaking and adjusting their policies and procedures to respond to and manage those events quickly to squash them… just as other countries–like Vietnam and S. Korea (and others) have been doing this entire time very effectively–without prolonged shut downs.
What’s the rush? You might ask? Well, for one, it’s no rush. Were 4 months into this thing already–and the financial and social costs to the state and counties–and businesses–and people of Hawaii have already been enormous. The state of Hawaii was already involvent to the tune around $5,000,000,000 dollars even BEFORE the shutdown and quarantine started–essentially choking off a huge percentage of the state’s revenue base. But guess what? Your property taxes are still due. Your school taxes are still due. Your income taxes are still due. Virtually ALL state and county employees are STILL getting paid. So, essentially, the state and the counties have just been charging all of these new, COVID-19 expenses to a giant credit card account… that is owed, due, and payable by the citizens and taxpayers of Hawaii… that alreay had an overdue balance of $5 BILLION dollars–while at the same time, state tax revenues have completely collapsed (by 50%).
The cost to taxpayers–per day–is easily in the $12,0000,000 per DAY mark–probably closer to double that. How? Because public spending has not decreased AT ALL–in fact it is likely much INCREASED–while at the same time, general fund revnues have halved. And that does not take into consideration ANY of the lost revenue to local business–which is easily in the billions of dollars.
Sure, human life is precious and all that. But HOW precious? $100,000,000 per person? $1,000,000,000? More? At some point, we have to be honest with ourselves and do that math.
Your logic has already been tested. Hopefully, you have read the results: Arizona: 25% POSITIVE test results; Florida: Highest daily positive rates for a state since the beginning of the pandemic; Texas: Strain on most larger hospitals’ ability to cope with rising case numbers.
ALL made the same arguments you made. ALL chose the wrong bet. If your goal is to stop the spread, your methodology is sorely lacking.
I was going to comment on this article, but Jared X has hit the nail on the head. I would only add, the entire premise at the beginning of this shutdown was “15 days the slow the spread” then it was “flatten the curve” to keep hospitals from being overrun. Then it was “we’ll bribe you (with your own money) to stay at home while we figure this thing out.” Now Hawaii’s government has transformed into some insane gambit to ensure that nobody even gets sick on the island.
People are getting sick at the highest rates we have seen, but death rates cannot be hidden, and they are WAY lower than we were initially told. Remember that it was proclaimed to be 5%? Now, we’re seeing that number was too high by a factor of TEN. That is insane, and puts it around the same rate as the flu. Look for a chart that overlays total cases and total deaths… if you can even find one, you will see that the two only have a loose association, and that cases have ballooned at a much higher rate over the last month and a half compared to deaths. It just isn’t the threat it has been made out to be. Isolate the old and infirm, stop throwing people on ventilators, and treat this illness with the methods that we have seen work.
How many of your personal friends and family are you willing to sacrifice Harvey? 1? 10? 100? Hawaii are ISLANDS 20 million people show up from all around the world and infect the entire islands? they have NO place to go. I sincerely hope you find an alternative and DO NOT visit Hawaii. None of us want people with entitled attitudes [edited].
Myself and 5 of my family have reservations Aug 1st to the 9th. We have already rebooked our trip. We have no problem with the state request for a C0vid test. In fact, it eases my mind. We are getting so close to leaving, and I have been trying to not let any of my family be concerned that we have no clue yet how we are getting these test to your state within 72 hrs before we go. But, I’m starting to get nervous. This is an extremely expensive trip that the owner of the property has been so kind to rebook with no fee. But, if we cant get results before flying, I may not get a refund again.
I know you probably have this question asked more times than I could imagine… But, could you please tell me if you think this trip will REALLY happen, or should I start preparing my family once again that we will not be going.
Thank you for your response in advance.
Wendy
Hi Wendy.
Yes totally frustrating to not know. We do hope to have clarification on August 1 soon, but that is obviously out of our control.
Aloha..
Hello, do you have any idea what the difference is between the naat and pcr covid tests. I can’t find any info at all on naat tests.
Thank you very much!
Hi Anthony.
Others have said in comments what they have learned. We’ll provide more information as soon as we have it.
Aloha.
I am super curious about this too… my trip is August 1st ( originally I’m June ) not sure if I should cancel now. Keep us updated thank you
Hi Timer.
Will do.
Aloha.
Timber – my daughter and her fiance travel Aug 1 also. I think you will make it! Surely they’ll make some changes or else no one will come.
Never mind:(
We are August 15th. Please, keep us posted on your process. You are like the canary in the mine.
Hi Lisa.
Thanks.
Aloha.
Thank for keeping us informed. This sounds very complicated and we may be rescheduling our August 21st trip to Maui not by choice, this will be our second reschedule, better safe than sorry.
Hi Joan.
Thanks.
Aloha.
Good morning.
If we are vacationing from the mainland to Hawaii and have the test results, will we have to take another test to come back to the mainland?
Thank you,
Sharie
Hi Sharie.
No, you will not.
Aloha.