101 thoughts on “Will Kauai Get Approval To Quarantine All Visitors?”
Stephen G.
I give credit to Kawakami. He is protecting the people of Kauai. An island that seems to put all differences aside to come together when needed. I have not heard anything but praise for Kawakami from Kauai. The people know that even though the virus is responsible for the death,sickness, economy, education etc. it will certainly not be disgruntled tourists that cause any sorrow for Kauai. Honestly most of the island would rather see the tourists go somewhere else but that does not stop them from sharing aloha. Let Kawakami protect his people, it’s his job.
Landed on Kauai Monday 16th, tested negative with approved site pretravel. Self quarantine in hotel 3 days. Then taking second voluntary test for a variety of reasons. Safety of family living on Kauai, airport/air travel, respect for the locals, etc. Anything ive ordered or needed has been dropped off outside of my door, no biggie.
Ive tested, and will test again voluntarily, wear my mask, social distance, quarantined, etc.
Only push back I’ve received are from people who say I shouldn’t travel, same ones that say follow the science, go figure.
If you follow the guidelines in place, don’t see why its a problem.
I live in San Diego and people do come here all the time. I would rather they do not come here to vacation right now, but this is America, they are my fellow Americans and that is their right to travel within this country.
Well put my friend. This is another state in America, not its own sovereign nation. We are all Americans and need to treat one another with the mutual respect.
A vacation to any of the Hawaiian islands is incredibly expensive. Airfare, hotels, rental cars, food & beverage and now an additional excessive amount for Covid tests. No matter how long our trip is (7 days or 10 days or 14 days) I absolutely will not allow my family to pay to quarantine on the island of Kauai. The condo we rent is $400 a night … why in the world would I spend well over $1200 (3 days of quarantine) to hide away indoors and watch tv all day while on vacation. Ridiculous. Will gladly take my money elsewhere if this restriction plays out.
Kathy,you must think of more than yourself and the cost. These are unprecedented times. The kamaaina deserve to be protected and while the economy relies on tourism they can’t risk their lives by being exposed by those visiting the island. I lived on Kauai for many years and respect that it is a very special place. We must put the community there first, before our own desire to be in paradise. Kauai has very limited medical facilities, limited doctors and we just can’t put them at risk. This is a very unpredictable and deadly virus.
I have been to Hawaii several times and enjoyed myself without any reservation. In the past few months I have noticed so many negative comments by the people of Hawaii that I have cancelled my vacation this year and future years. Undoubtedly there are many excuses for their attitude toward the mainlanders but we must remember that we are all Americans and need to treat each other as such. Therefore I will vacation on the mainland and Mexico where people appreciate me and treat me as an equal 619 San Diego’s Thank you
John,a negative test result is only a snapshot in time. You can test negative after being exposed to the virus and a day or two later become symptomatic and test positive. The challenge with covid is that it takes 2-14 days to become symptomatic and/or test positive after exposure. Also..you are contagious 2 days before symptoms begin. Since I help directly with the public health effort, I have learned that most flights will have multiple infectious passengers on board. A second test makes sense, and without such measures quarantine will protect a vulnerable community like Kauai.
I just watched the lt governors weekly presentation. I try to watch all presentations to keep up with what is happening. Something I found odd (and I’m not looking for promask/antimask arguments) but Kauai has the lowest positivity rate, residents are worried about any positive numbers coming in (which is understandable) but the Lt Governor just stated that Kauai has the lowest mask wearing precentage of all islands at Around 73/74%? Again, not looking for a debate. Just thought it was interesting if people are worried of transmision and worried about visitors not wearing masks why Kauai residents have the lowest percentage of compliance.
I speculate that Kauai has low “positivity” rate because there have been, and still are, very few people that had the virus on island. Also, we are outside most of the time, or in houses with a lot of open windows, jalousies. But, that part is also true for the other islands. I am cynical that all the sweaty face diapers do much if anything other than to give people a another source of anger towards each other. No shortage of that these days, including in these comments.
Arriving Kaui on Nov 28th. Prior to that have already done 14 days at home. COVID test 72hr prior scheduled, Safe Travel site almost completed.
We have several masks each. I really hope this is just an article about what if. A majority number of tourist hopefully will follow the guidelines.
Diane, thank you for all the measures you took to be safe and protect Kauai. Please do consider retesting a few days after arrival to ensure you were not exposed on the long flight. I would recommend anyone flying to please wear a KN-95 or multiple layers mask with a filter. It’s pretty much a guarantee that there will be more than one infectious passenger on the plane. I don’t say this to scare anyone, it’s just the reality right now. I do direct public health investigation and contact tracing and many, many cases have flown during their infectious period. Most unknowingly, some while symptomatic sadly.
Mr/Ms Ka you seem to know everything-“it is guaranteed that there will be several infectious people on a plane” based on Hawaii’s own statistics roughly one out of 1000 arrivals tests positive after arrival. So the planes you are speaking of must be cruise lines or aircraft carriers to have several positive cases. The planes serving Hawaii typically have about 200 seats so one in every five planes if they are FULL. Also this argument does not line up with airline crews rate of getting Covid. Based on studies by Harvard and DOD scientists risk of getting infected while on the plane are very low. Finally as seen from statistics Kauai has the lowest percentage of mask wearing and most of the COVID cases are either community spread or residents returning. So next time you post get your facts straight.
We traveled to Maui on Nov 8th and returned the 13th. Wore our masks the whole time. Both flights were packed. Now 6 days after returning home still no symptoms or anything. I understand people get lucky. My husband and I were apparently 2 that did. Just keep your immune system up people! And don’t let stress/fear make you 😷
Visitors should absolutely have to have a negative test result before boarding the plane to any of the Hawaiian Islands. A second test on arrival or shortly thereafter doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
Kauai cannot require anything of people who board planes. Nor can Hawaii. Maybe the Harris administration will impose such thing, but it would likely be for all airline travel anywhere in US. As long as the test was relatively cheap (like the TSA fee?) could be built into tickets. And like TSA, whether anything useful is being accomplished or just keeping up appearances will be a matter of opinion.
Yes,Kauai has 9 ICU beds,but,per population how does that differ from Honolulu,San Francisco,New York-tourist destinations.
Wear a mask to protect yourself and others from viral load and limit gatherings,Covid will be with us for a long time.Move forward.
They have alot more resources on Oahu. Kauai has over 74k residents and 9 ICU beds. Anything serious usually has to fly to Oahu. So obviously anyone that’s comes and has the virus and goes bad is going to take up one bed while residents who live there and yes they are suffering with no jobs will be put at risk because of someone not willing to sacrifice 3 days waiting on another test. It’s not that much to ask. I go back home to Hawai in 3 weeks. I will get both test and still quarentine for my piece of mind to not put others at risk. 3 days isnt that much to ask.
Yes,perhaps Kauai needs to increase its resources and look at where the money is going to State Facilities such as KVMH and Mahelona-I know,I worked in the system for 37 years
Well put my friend. This is another state in America, not its own sovereign nation. We are all Americans and need to treat one another with the mutual respect.
“We are all Americans and need to treat one another with the mutual respect.”
I’m in my late 50s. It used to be that people of differing political or religious views could still get along. In part, because people would consciously not discuss politics or religion when they are trying to be pleasant and social. You at least tried to find common ground. Maybe sports, or hobbies, or kids, or whatever.
That time has long passed. More and more everyone is “in your face”. And if you don’t share exactly my world view, you are a worthless human being to be ridiculed or canceled or whatever. IMO, is because of the internet. A generation has now been raised on social media. Look at these comments as an example, let alone the cesspool that is Twitter.
Any program relying on the tourist to do something is not, will not work. Ige and Mayor K were warned by many people. Here on Kaua’i we begged the mayor not to go through with this foolhardy plan an now here we are.
Please, all you mainlanders understand We are only trying to protecting ourselves from Covid19 from people who are wanting to vacation. How would you feel if you knew 3 out of a thousand people were coming into your community infected? That may not sound like a lot but 70k people live here and we were virtually free. 9 ICU on our tiny island
If you come here sick you cannot leave!!!!!!!!!!!!
During the Ohio governor’s twice a week briefing, he had an infectious disease doctor speak and at one point reiterated what the Italian researchers said back in JUNE that the China virus had already mutated into a more virulent but with less health impact form. I expect that so many more people around the world will have contracted the virus before the vaccines are released that eventually this Chinese created viral attack upon the world will be relegated to the seasonal status. But God only knows what their crazy leaders have planned next.
I’ve heard a lot about Kauai’s lack of ICU units and ventilators. But this pandemic is going on 10 months now, so the island has had plenty of time to add capacity. What happens when a more serious pandemic comes along, which is probably inevitable? Here in California, numerous temporary locations were set up in case they were needed. Our local college gymnasium was one of those locations. Thankfully it hasn’t been gotten bad enough for that.
Well, we have reservations for Kauai at a rental condo in two weeks time…I can’t get a refund on our vacation, but am not feeling very welcome at this point. If I wouldn’t lose a significant amount of money, I would cancel. As it is, I will keep mingling to a minimum. We have been practicing safety protocols for many months successfully and will continue to do so.
I live in Colorado where tourists are bread and butter. If you have a plan in place with requirements it will work. Enforcement is everything! I cancelled a European trip for Hawaii at New Years. I will do anything to follow the rules and be safe but I won’t spend 72 hours of my 6 nights quarantining. I will continue to pray for safety and health for everyone. I really want to enjoy this special place on earth. Hopefully it will happen.
Hi, Curtis. You’re right. Kauai has had plenty of time to prepare for the pandemic–and the return of tourism… they just don’t want to. They’d rather just use the situation as an excuse to shut down tourism–because they really don’t want tourists there to begin with.
I understand The Mayor’s concern. I also believe the Safe Travels program is working and will only improve. I am a Kauai resident snd recently retired Kauai ER RN. I believe we can and need to move forward , mitigate covid by wearing masks,limiting gatherings,hygiene.
A person can test positive for Covid and not be ill, it’s about viral load exposure. Masks,limiting gatherings limit viral load exposure. It’s great to see visitors returning,knowing too the barriers they face with travel. Hawaii residents have had this utopia to ourselves,it’s time we all welcome back the visitors, visitors,mitigate.
Not go to Kauai because of the a 3-day quarantine? You bet. In fact, just TALK of it (or writing about it) will drive people to book away from the Garden Island. When all the tourism jobs go away, the nine ICU beds will be more than enough as people will have to leave to find jobs somewhere else.
Hi! Just logging my response to your newsletter. We are scheduled to go to Kauai in June 2021. . Third time rescheduling. If this happens we will likely cancel and just forget about Kauai until something changes. Not my preference but our money has been tied up for awhile now. Thank you for your helpful newsletter! We’ll be back… someday!
I am worried about using the rapid test as the 2nd test. They are not as reliable for asymptomatic people as the PCR tests. One brand has two many false positive, the other too many false negatives. Too risky to make the investment in a Hawaiian vacation.
I am here at my condo in Kona as of Nov 4th for a month. I tested before I left Seattle and again on arrival. Both negative. On social media I have read that Kona is now only testing 20% of the people arriving in Kona. That means 80% not being second testing. I hope this is not true.
Thank you for keeping us all up to date.
Renae T
Any mandatory quarantine will set us back to a pre-October 15th status. I am a vacation rental owner with my first guest since April arriving next week. If this order is approved the rest of my guests for December will cancel. If they could quarantine at my home, I might have a chance for those who are staying two weeks. Otherwise, I shuttered again.
Differences per island doesn’t seem like a good plan, 72 hour mandatory quarantine does not seem feasible for most people.
As I’ve posted before, I don’t know why Hawaii can’t follow the same protocols as Tahiti, a similar set of islands in the middle of the Pacific with limited medical resources. I just returned from Tahiti and there were no issues.
For Tahiti, take a test 3 days prior to traveling, obtain negative results, complete and upload your travel itinerary (where you’re staying, etcetera), show your negative results at check in, fly to Tahiti, be given a self Covid test upon arrival to self test 4 days later, go about your business, no quarantine required, self test on the 4th day, turn in to designated facility. If you are negative you never hear back, if you are positive, they contact you and you are sent to a quarantine facility in Papeete (at your cost), away from any of the smaller islands you may have been on, that have limited resources.
This all seemed reasonable to us, and we were happy to follow all the rules, including all the normal mask wearing policies while we were there.
Alaska is (or was?) doing same/similar thing that Canada is now proposing. If you had a negative pre-flight or on-arrival test, you were in “quarantine light” for a period of time until you took a post-arrival test. Quarantine light meaning you could still go to stores and to uncrowded outside places, but no bars/restaurants. Are there any crowded outside places in Alaska? If Kawakami could live with “quarantine light”, maybe some tourists would still vacation there, as long as it only means no restaurants or “crowded places.”
People should not be banned from “quarantining in a vacation rental. Way more humane than being locked up in a single – most probably sh*ty cramped hotel room. At least you’d have a kitchen, laundry, and a yard if a house. I believe this has been Kawakami’s way of punishing vacation rental owners. A very vocal minority (maybe even majority?) of people on Kauai blame vacation rentals for all manner of problems, just like Air B N B rentals are blamed in other places. The County of Kauai charges $750 a year for the permits, trash collection goes from $6 to over $100 a month, plus – and this is the big one – your property tax gets upped by 50%. And, no, Kauai is not waiving any of these fees/increased taxes this year despite having outlawed their operations for 7+months. The county likes to collection the money while badmouthing the owners.
I think Quarrantine light would be a good common ground too as long as rentals are ok. That is what I’m hoping, is that something can be agreed upon. No matter what, people will be upset. We’re in very divided times right now.
The hotel proviso is so that the owner – management serve as an extra pair of eyes. My DIL’a mom has been with us for 4 months plus and she quarantined for the full 14 days, and boy, were we watched just bringing the food to her and leaving it outside her door.
Yes, there is some primitive thinking around here. E.G. Honolulu going ahead with a trial against the US SURGEON GENERAL, J.M.Adams. Read about it, straight out of Alice in Wonderland: “Off with his head!” Scary!
The feasibility of “quarantine light” is premised on people being honest, and having enough police and socially active people to apprehend and “report” the scofflaws…strong word I know, don’t know of another though.
“The feasibility of “quarantine light” is premised on people being honest, and having enough police and socially active people to apprehend and “report” the scofflaws…”
Perhaps you could start up a “Caren Patrol”. Similar to the Kanaka patrol, only aimed at monitoring and ratting out quarantine light violators. The ladies that set up the stakes around beached seals would be good candidates.
My family is very anxious with this news as we are supposed to be on Kauai Dec.20 only for 5days. And we picked only Kauai due to my husband’s family, Grove Farm, so no other Island is an option for us. And we are trying to not move it out because we want a slow, quiet, nonbusy time in Kauai. I feel there is just a big difference in perspective between residents, residents who rely on tourism, and visitors. Just like we have big difference on the mainland. And I truly believe the governor has done his best and better than most mainland on trying to create a plan that may not make everyone happy but is balanced for safety and economy. Someone said to me on Kauai’s FB that its scary with 1 or 2 postives a day when they had 0 for months but that wasn’t correct. Kauai has had 20positive cases from july-opening october on their quarrantine plan. And yes that is a lower number but nothing is 100%. Hawaii continuing to have one of the lowest numbers even during a surge, with thousands of travelers arriving I think is remarkable but thats my perspective. I’ve seen other residents upset that tourists can travel but residents are encouraged to not visit family or elders, but again, thats the recommendation everywhere not just Hawaii. The tier structure that was put into place last month was to help Kauai with another layer of restrictions incase numbers increased too much. And they are having weekly surge testing. To only give this program a month and ask for more restrictions or to opt out before even moving up a tier? Why even put a tier structure in place? I hope the governor and kauai mayor come to an understanding soon. All the islands have a unique opportunity of being able to monitor anyone that comes into the state unlike the mainland. And I mean no disrespect to any residents that have a different perspective but covid is not going away for a long time, even after vaccines start rolling out.
Yes…it’s safety first. Our island has a small hospital the Covid will easily overwhelm our medical service. I don’t understand why we are inviting visitors to come to Hawaii. Mainland people want to escape last week the new case count over the US was 1 million!! YES..1 million which is not being reported on TV news. God…..help us.
Another question would be, during a pandemic why does Kauai still have the same amount of NICU beds and rescources? Putting restrictions on people coming in is a layer of safety but Kauai has had 7months to add hospital rescources. Again, not trying to disrespect but with a pandemic I would think making sure an island has ample hospital rescources would be the first thing that is done.
Lynde, medical care in Hawaii is a very complicated issue. Kauai is small and has limited resources. You can not compare it to other places. The Big Island of Hawaii is similar, limited medical care available. Both places regularly medivac to Oahu. It’s hard to attract physicians because the cost of living is so high, there are other more complicated issues and reasons that make expanding ICU beds or medical care very difficult.
Could we please stop the name-calling and Show each other some aloha? I am with you, Ane, and I only wish the state mask wearing mandate had fewer exceptions. I wear my mask everywhere except when I am five feet from shore in the ocean.
Over 3000 people arrived by air in Honolulu yesterday. Don’t know how many visitors arrived in Maui yesterday but I can tell from the roads and supermarket they are starting to return. I will always treasure that day when, for 5 minutes, I was the only person on Wailea beach.
My thoughts are that I won’t be visiting Hawaii until after I have received a vaccine. I am happy to provide proof of my vaccine after I get it but expect not to quarantine at all.
A very interesting predicament. Using risk analysis would helpfully assist the Governor with decision making on this issue. While it should be clear that some amount of risk must be taken just to have a functioning society, what should be measured in this case is IF each island has unique and substantially different risk factors, and can existing local services and infrastructure keep those risks to a minimum?
In this case, it appears to me to be quite evident that the risk factors unique to Kauai are multi-faceted and compounding to the point that a blanket policy might endanger residents and visitors alike. Most are aware that the resources in Kauai are quite limited. Hospitals can only handle so many ER cases, and so many ICU cases. Police/ Fire/ EMS services are also thinly staffed by comparison to other islands, if your first responders and medical workers get Covid, things will get dire quickly. Honolulu of course being the most resource rich of the islands will naturally be able to absorb more risk. Smaller island may not. This is compounded by the fact that on any island, help will potentially be long in coming. (Ever have to wait for ambulance in an emergency? Well multiply that by 100) I could envision a help call to one of the US Navy’s hospital ships to intervene…but we never want to see that, because there isn’t much after that back up plan.
Please let Kauai implement restrictions for public safety that fits the infrastructure and limitations. I recommend going on an initial 30 day implementation and communication with the military for support, with the option to extend a week at a time as needed. I tend to be one who sides for taking certain risks in order to maintain normalcy, but unique to a Kauai- the Governor should heed the requests.
The Canadian plan seems fair – sensible without being too restrictive. We are planning our next trip to Kauai at the end of May 2021 and will be there for three weeks, so a few days in quarantine wouldn’t be awful. I wouldn’t do it if my visit was only a week.
We were originally planning to travel to HI in April; rescheduled for the beginning of December; cancelled a couple of weeks ago and heading to the beach in CA instead. We felt there was a good chance the restrictions would tighten and didn’t want to risk losing our investment at this point. We hope to travel there again next year!
It’s sad to say but until things get standardized I’m not investing in a Hawaiian vacation. I’ve made 5 visits to Oahu over the last 7 years and most averaged 4-5 days. I absolutely adore the people and places!
I’m already opposed to the hotel industry’s escalating use of resort and cleaning fees which adds more and more “hidden” costs to my destination vacations. Even a $200 RT flight can’t make up for the extra costs. Adding now the extra costs of testing, I just can’t afford it.
For now I think I will continue, as I have all this year, in driving to long weekend get-a-ways (6 states and over 20,000 miles). But I shall dream of a time when Hawaiian travel opens up again…..
Thanks for the update. We are monitoring closely as we would like to travel to Kuwaii in January (we stay in rentals not hotels).
2nd test after arrival seems reasonable. 3-day quarantine would be tough in a rental, would not go if 3 days in a hotel was required.
Well, they better make a decision pretty quick as I am supposed to fly on December 3rd! I can stay at my condo for 3 days on lockdown but not 14! I am only going to be on island 9 nights so this will put a squeeze on all the work I am trying to get completed on such a short stay. Maybe I will just cancel and the Garden Island will not get any of my Christmas shopping $$$.
We were due in today. Cancelled last week and we travel to Mexico tomorrow. Hawaii is too much of a vacation investment in time, length of flight and cost to risk for vacation. We look forward to going in 2 years. Hope covid is a bad memory by then
I was just in Kauai for less than 3 days visiting friends. I am going back for 8 days in February but will cancel if we need to quarantine for 3 days. We are already paying over $1,000 in covid tests and now this?
I absolutely agree with the quarantine until 2 neg. tests. Maui has more hospital capacity than Kauai but not much. We have seen how quickly we can go from 0 cases to lots from a community gathering of less people than are on a plane together. It kind of feels like waiting for the other shoe to drop over here with so many tourists back now. We have been so easy going for so long with low to no cases here and everyone being really careful (mostly). Now the fear is back like in March. Stay safe out there.
Ane T
I give credit to Kawakami. He is protecting the people of Kauai. An island that seems to put all differences aside to come together when needed. I have not heard anything but praise for Kawakami from Kauai. The people know that even though the virus is responsible for the death,sickness, economy, education etc. it will certainly not be disgruntled tourists that cause any sorrow for Kauai. Honestly most of the island would rather see the tourists go somewhere else but that does not stop them from sharing aloha. Let Kawakami protect his people, it’s his job.
Landed on Kauai Monday 16th, tested negative with approved site pretravel. Self quarantine in hotel 3 days. Then taking second voluntary test for a variety of reasons. Safety of family living on Kauai, airport/air travel, respect for the locals, etc. Anything ive ordered or needed has been dropped off outside of my door, no biggie.
Ive tested, and will test again voluntarily, wear my mask, social distance, quarantined, etc.
Only push back I’ve received are from people who say I shouldn’t travel, same ones that say follow the science, go figure.
If you follow the guidelines in place, don’t see why its a problem.
I live in San Diego and people do come here all the time. I would rather they do not come here to vacation right now, but this is America, they are my fellow Americans and that is their right to travel within this country.
Well put my friend. This is another state in America, not its own sovereign nation. We are all Americans and need to treat one another with the mutual respect.
A vacation to any of the Hawaiian islands is incredibly expensive. Airfare, hotels, rental cars, food & beverage and now an additional excessive amount for Covid tests. No matter how long our trip is (7 days or 10 days or 14 days) I absolutely will not allow my family to pay to quarantine on the island of Kauai. The condo we rent is $400 a night … why in the world would I spend well over $1200 (3 days of quarantine) to hide away indoors and watch tv all day while on vacation. Ridiculous. Will gladly take my money elsewhere if this restriction plays out.
Kathy,you must think of more than yourself and the cost. These are unprecedented times. The kamaaina deserve to be protected and while the economy relies on tourism they can’t risk their lives by being exposed by those visiting the island. I lived on Kauai for many years and respect that it is a very special place. We must put the community there first, before our own desire to be in paradise. Kauai has very limited medical facilities, limited doctors and we just can’t put them at risk. This is a very unpredictable and deadly virus.
Thank you for your honesty, you are exactly the type of tourist that Mayor Kawakami is protecting the wonderful people of Kauai from.
I have been to Hawaii several times and enjoyed myself without any reservation. In the past few months I have noticed so many negative comments by the people of Hawaii that I have cancelled my vacation this year and future years. Undoubtedly there are many excuses for their attitude toward the mainlanders but we must remember that we are all Americans and need to treat each other as such. Therefore I will vacation on the mainland and Mexico where people appreciate me and treat me as an equal 619 San Diego’s Thank you
I agree with you. I will not vacation in Hawaii anytime soon I will take my hard earned money somewhere else lol
We will cancel our trip if we are put into any sort of quarantine,if we have the required negative test results .
John,a negative test result is only a snapshot in time. You can test negative after being exposed to the virus and a day or two later become symptomatic and test positive. The challenge with covid is that it takes 2-14 days to become symptomatic and/or test positive after exposure. Also..you are contagious 2 days before symptoms begin. Since I help directly with the public health effort, I have learned that most flights will have multiple infectious passengers on board. A second test makes sense, and without such measures quarantine will protect a vulnerable community like Kauai.
I think the only solution to this is don’t travel to Hawaii.
I just watched the lt governors weekly presentation. I try to watch all presentations to keep up with what is happening. Something I found odd (and I’m not looking for promask/antimask arguments) but Kauai has the lowest positivity rate, residents are worried about any positive numbers coming in (which is understandable) but the Lt Governor just stated that Kauai has the lowest mask wearing precentage of all islands at Around 73/74%? Again, not looking for a debate. Just thought it was interesting if people are worried of transmision and worried about visitors not wearing masks why Kauai residents have the lowest percentage of compliance.
I speculate that Kauai has low “positivity” rate because there have been, and still are, very few people that had the virus on island. Also, we are outside most of the time, or in houses with a lot of open windows, jalousies. But, that part is also true for the other islands. I am cynical that all the sweaty face diapers do much if anything other than to give people a another source of anger towards each other. No shortage of that these days, including in these comments.
Arriving Kaui on Nov 28th. Prior to that have already done 14 days at home. COVID test 72hr prior scheduled, Safe Travel site almost completed.
We have several masks each. I really hope this is just an article about what if. A majority number of tourist hopefully will follow the guidelines.
Diane, thank you for all the measures you took to be safe and protect Kauai. Please do consider retesting a few days after arrival to ensure you were not exposed on the long flight. I would recommend anyone flying to please wear a KN-95 or multiple layers mask with a filter. It’s pretty much a guarantee that there will be more than one infectious passenger on the plane. I don’t say this to scare anyone, it’s just the reality right now. I do direct public health investigation and contact tracing and many, many cases have flown during their infectious period. Most unknowingly, some while symptomatic sadly.
Mr/Ms Ka you seem to know everything-“it is guaranteed that there will be several infectious people on a plane” based on Hawaii’s own statistics roughly one out of 1000 arrivals tests positive after arrival. So the planes you are speaking of must be cruise lines or aircraft carriers to have several positive cases. The planes serving Hawaii typically have about 200 seats so one in every five planes if they are FULL. Also this argument does not line up with airline crews rate of getting Covid. Based on studies by Harvard and DOD scientists risk of getting infected while on the plane are very low. Finally as seen from statistics Kauai has the lowest percentage of mask wearing and most of the COVID cases are either community spread or residents returning. So next time you post get your facts straight.
We traveled to Maui on Nov 8th and returned the 13th. Wore our masks the whole time. Both flights were packed. Now 6 days after returning home still no symptoms or anything. I understand people get lucky. My husband and I were apparently 2 that did. Just keep your immune system up people! And don’t let stress/fear make you 😷
Visitors should absolutely have to have a negative test result before boarding the plane to any of the Hawaiian Islands. A second test on arrival or shortly thereafter doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
Not clear who will enforce the arrival of negative covid tests to Kauai, , airline ticket agents?
Kauai cannot require anything of people who board planes. Nor can Hawaii. Maybe the Harris administration will impose such thing, but it would likely be for all airline travel anywhere in US. As long as the test was relatively cheap (like the TSA fee?) could be built into tickets. And like TSA, whether anything useful is being accomplished or just keeping up appearances will be a matter of opinion.
good ideas
Exactly
Please, we are only trying to protect ourselves so we don’t look like a lot of small communities across the nation. We have 9 ICU beds.
if you come here and get sick you cannot leave!!!!!?!!!?
Think about it. Think about the local person you might be taking a bed from. That person could be me!
This foolhardy program is not working for us.
Yes,Kauai has 9 ICU beds,but,per population how does that differ from Honolulu,San Francisco,New York-tourist destinations.
Wear a mask to protect yourself and others from viral load and limit gatherings,Covid will be with us for a long time.Move forward.
They have alot more resources on Oahu. Kauai has over 74k residents and 9 ICU beds. Anything serious usually has to fly to Oahu. So obviously anyone that’s comes and has the virus and goes bad is going to take up one bed while residents who live there and yes they are suffering with no jobs will be put at risk because of someone not willing to sacrifice 3 days waiting on another test. It’s not that much to ask. I go back home to Hawai in 3 weeks. I will get both test and still quarentine for my piece of mind to not put others at risk. 3 days isnt that much to ask.
Yes,perhaps Kauai needs to increase its resources and look at where the money is going to State Facilities such as KVMH and Mahelona-I know,I worked in the system for 37 years
Well put my friend. This is another state in America, not its own sovereign nation. We are all Americans and need to treat one another with the mutual respect.
“We are all Americans and need to treat one another with the mutual respect.”
I’m in my late 50s. It used to be that people of differing political or religious views could still get along. In part, because people would consciously not discuss politics or religion when they are trying to be pleasant and social. You at least tried to find common ground. Maybe sports, or hobbies, or kids, or whatever.
That time has long passed. More and more everyone is “in your face”. And if you don’t share exactly my world view, you are a worthless human being to be ridiculed or canceled or whatever. IMO, is because of the internet. A generation has now been raised on social media. Look at these comments as an example, let alone the cesspool that is Twitter.
Any program relying on the tourist to do something is not, will not work. Ige and Mayor K were warned by many people. Here on Kaua’i we begged the mayor not to go through with this foolhardy plan an now here we are.
Please, all you mainlanders understand We are only trying to protecting ourselves from Covid19 from people who are wanting to vacation. How would you feel if you knew 3 out of a thousand people were coming into your community infected? That may not sound like a lot but 70k people live here and we were virtually free. 9 ICU on our tiny island
If you come here sick you cannot leave!!!!!!!!!!!!
Think about that,Please.
Kauai is a very small special loving paradise. This is a pandemic…it’s not business as usual. Put us on your bucket list…Aloha
During the Ohio governor’s twice a week briefing, he had an infectious disease doctor speak and at one point reiterated what the Italian researchers said back in JUNE that the China virus had already mutated into a more virulent but with less health impact form. I expect that so many more people around the world will have contracted the virus before the vaccines are released that eventually this Chinese created viral attack upon the world will be relegated to the seasonal status. But God only knows what their crazy leaders have planned next.
I’ve heard a lot about Kauai’s lack of ICU units and ventilators. But this pandemic is going on 10 months now, so the island has had plenty of time to add capacity. What happens when a more serious pandemic comes along, which is probably inevitable? Here in California, numerous temporary locations were set up in case they were needed. Our local college gymnasium was one of those locations. Thankfully it hasn’t been gotten bad enough for that.
Well, we have reservations for Kauai at a rental condo in two weeks time…I can’t get a refund on our vacation, but am not feeling very welcome at this point. If I wouldn’t lose a significant amount of money, I would cancel. As it is, I will keep mingling to a minimum. We have been practicing safety protocols for many months successfully and will continue to do so.
I live in Colorado where tourists are bread and butter. If you have a plan in place with requirements it will work. Enforcement is everything! I cancelled a European trip for Hawaii at New Years. I will do anything to follow the rules and be safe but I won’t spend 72 hours of my 6 nights quarantining. I will continue to pray for safety and health for everyone. I really want to enjoy this special place on earth. Hopefully it will happen.
Hi, Curtis. You’re right. Kauai has had plenty of time to prepare for the pandemic–and the return of tourism… they just don’t want to. They’d rather just use the situation as an excuse to shut down tourism–because they really don’t want tourists there to begin with.
This is accurate for much of the population. A most convenient pandemic, indeed.
Now, just send money and stay away.
I understand The Mayor’s concern. I also believe the Safe Travels program is working and will only improve. I am a Kauai resident snd recently retired Kauai ER RN. I believe we can and need to move forward , mitigate covid by wearing masks,limiting gatherings,hygiene.
A person can test positive for Covid and not be ill, it’s about viral load exposure. Masks,limiting gatherings limit viral load exposure. It’s great to see visitors returning,knowing too the barriers they face with travel. Hawaii residents have had this utopia to ourselves,it’s time we all welcome back the visitors, visitors,mitigate.
Not go to Kauai because of the a 3-day quarantine? You bet. In fact, just TALK of it (or writing about it) will drive people to book away from the Garden Island. When all the tourism jobs go away, the nine ICU beds will be more than enough as people will have to leave to find jobs somewhere else.
Hi! Just logging my response to your newsletter. We are scheduled to go to Kauai in June 2021. . Third time rescheduling. If this happens we will likely cancel and just forget about Kauai until something changes. Not my preference but our money has been tied up for awhile now. Thank you for your helpful newsletter! We’ll be back… someday!
Hi Bob.
Thanks. Hopefully, things will get somewhat more settled by then. We’ll keep updating.
Aloha.
I am worried about using the rapid test as the 2nd test. They are not as reliable for asymptomatic people as the PCR tests. One brand has two many false positive, the other too many false negatives. Too risky to make the investment in a Hawaiian vacation.
Are we crazy?
Just shut this thing down. Kauai cant handle it.
Taxing on our health care, and everybody’s heath.
We are paying a Very dear price for having tourists in at this time. There will be time
for tourism. It is not now.
It is definitely not now.
I am here at my condo in Kona as of Nov 4th for a month. I tested before I left Seattle and again on arrival. Both negative. On social media I have read that Kona is now only testing 20% of the people arriving in Kona. That means 80% not being second testing. I hope this is not true.
Thank you for keeping us all up to date.
Renae T
Hi Renae.
Glad you made it over to Kona. Hope you are having a wonderful time. We’d love to hear what it is like on the ground there. Thanks.
Aloha.
Any mandatory quarantine will set us back to a pre-October 15th status. I am a vacation rental owner with my first guest since April arriving next week. If this order is approved the rest of my guests for December will cancel. If they could quarantine at my home, I might have a chance for those who are staying two weeks. Otherwise, I shuttered again.
Differences per island doesn’t seem like a good plan, 72 hour mandatory quarantine does not seem feasible for most people.
As I’ve posted before, I don’t know why Hawaii can’t follow the same protocols as Tahiti, a similar set of islands in the middle of the Pacific with limited medical resources. I just returned from Tahiti and there were no issues.
For Tahiti, take a test 3 days prior to traveling, obtain negative results, complete and upload your travel itinerary (where you’re staying, etcetera), show your negative results at check in, fly to Tahiti, be given a self Covid test upon arrival to self test 4 days later, go about your business, no quarantine required, self test on the 4th day, turn in to designated facility. If you are negative you never hear back, if you are positive, they contact you and you are sent to a quarantine facility in Papeete (at your cost), away from any of the smaller islands you may have been on, that have limited resources.
This all seemed reasonable to us, and we were happy to follow all the rules, including all the normal mask wearing policies while we were there.
Thank you.
Hi Shannon.
Perhaps something similar will end up happening here.
Aloha.
Alaska is (or was?) doing same/similar thing that Canada is now proposing. If you had a negative pre-flight or on-arrival test, you were in “quarantine light” for a period of time until you took a post-arrival test. Quarantine light meaning you could still go to stores and to uncrowded outside places, but no bars/restaurants. Are there any crowded outside places in Alaska? If Kawakami could live with “quarantine light”, maybe some tourists would still vacation there, as long as it only means no restaurants or “crowded places.”
People should not be banned from “quarantining in a vacation rental. Way more humane than being locked up in a single – most probably sh*ty cramped hotel room. At least you’d have a kitchen, laundry, and a yard if a house. I believe this has been Kawakami’s way of punishing vacation rental owners. A very vocal minority (maybe even majority?) of people on Kauai blame vacation rentals for all manner of problems, just like Air B N B rentals are blamed in other places. The County of Kauai charges $750 a year for the permits, trash collection goes from $6 to over $100 a month, plus – and this is the big one – your property tax gets upped by 50%. And, no, Kauai is not waiving any of these fees/increased taxes this year despite having outlawed their operations for 7+months. The county likes to collection the money while badmouthing the owners.
Was that a political rant?
I think Quarrantine light would be a good common ground too as long as rentals are ok. That is what I’m hoping, is that something can be agreed upon. No matter what, people will be upset. We’re in very divided times right now.
The hotel proviso is so that the owner – management serve as an extra pair of eyes. My DIL’a mom has been with us for 4 months plus and she quarantined for the full 14 days, and boy, were we watched just bringing the food to her and leaving it outside her door.
Yes, there is some primitive thinking around here. E.G. Honolulu going ahead with a trial against the US SURGEON GENERAL, J.M.Adams. Read about it, straight out of Alice in Wonderland: “Off with his head!” Scary!
The feasibility of “quarantine light” is premised on people being honest, and having enough police and socially active people to apprehend and “report” the scofflaws…strong word I know, don’t know of another though.
“The feasibility of “quarantine light” is premised on people being honest, and having enough police and socially active people to apprehend and “report” the scofflaws…”
Perhaps you could start up a “Caren Patrol”. Similar to the Kanaka patrol, only aimed at monitoring and ratting out quarantine light violators. The ladies that set up the stakes around beached seals would be good candidates.
My family is very anxious with this news as we are supposed to be on Kauai Dec.20 only for 5days. And we picked only Kauai due to my husband’s family, Grove Farm, so no other Island is an option for us. And we are trying to not move it out because we want a slow, quiet, nonbusy time in Kauai. I feel there is just a big difference in perspective between residents, residents who rely on tourism, and visitors. Just like we have big difference on the mainland. And I truly believe the governor has done his best and better than most mainland on trying to create a plan that may not make everyone happy but is balanced for safety and economy. Someone said to me on Kauai’s FB that its scary with 1 or 2 postives a day when they had 0 for months but that wasn’t correct. Kauai has had 20positive cases from july-opening october on their quarrantine plan. And yes that is a lower number but nothing is 100%. Hawaii continuing to have one of the lowest numbers even during a surge, with thousands of travelers arriving I think is remarkable but thats my perspective. I’ve seen other residents upset that tourists can travel but residents are encouraged to not visit family or elders, but again, thats the recommendation everywhere not just Hawaii. The tier structure that was put into place last month was to help Kauai with another layer of restrictions incase numbers increased too much. And they are having weekly surge testing. To only give this program a month and ask for more restrictions or to opt out before even moving up a tier? Why even put a tier structure in place? I hope the governor and kauai mayor come to an understanding soon. All the islands have a unique opportunity of being able to monitor anyone that comes into the state unlike the mainland. And I mean no disrespect to any residents that have a different perspective but covid is not going away for a long time, even after vaccines start rolling out.
Excellent points Lynde!
Yes…it’s safety first. Our island has a small hospital the Covid will easily overwhelm our medical service. I don’t understand why we are inviting visitors to come to Hawaii. Mainland people want to escape last week the new case count over the US was 1 million!! YES..1 million which is not being reported on TV news. God…..help us.
Another question would be, during a pandemic why does Kauai still have the same amount of NICU beds and rescources? Putting restrictions on people coming in is a layer of safety but Kauai has had 7months to add hospital rescources. Again, not trying to disrespect but with a pandemic I would think making sure an island has ample hospital rescources would be the first thing that is done.
Lynde, medical care in Hawaii is a very complicated issue. Kauai is small and has limited resources. You can not compare it to other places. The Big Island of Hawaii is similar, limited medical care available. Both places regularly medivac to Oahu. It’s hard to attract physicians because the cost of living is so high, there are other more complicated issues and reasons that make expanding ICU beds or medical care very difficult.
When will the decision be made?
Could we please stop the name-calling and Show each other some aloha? I am with you, Ane, and I only wish the state mask wearing mandate had fewer exceptions. I wear my mask everywhere except when I am five feet from shore in the ocean.
Over 3000 people arrived by air in Honolulu yesterday. Don’t know how many visitors arrived in Maui yesterday but I can tell from the roads and supermarket they are starting to return. I will always treasure that day when, for 5 minutes, I was the only person on Wailea beach.
My thoughts are that I won’t be visiting Hawaii until after I have received a vaccine. I am happy to provide proof of my vaccine after I get it but expect not to quarantine at all.
See you next April/May (at best)!
A very interesting predicament. Using risk analysis would helpfully assist the Governor with decision making on this issue. While it should be clear that some amount of risk must be taken just to have a functioning society, what should be measured in this case is IF each island has unique and substantially different risk factors, and can existing local services and infrastructure keep those risks to a minimum?
In this case, it appears to me to be quite evident that the risk factors unique to Kauai are multi-faceted and compounding to the point that a blanket policy might endanger residents and visitors alike. Most are aware that the resources in Kauai are quite limited. Hospitals can only handle so many ER cases, and so many ICU cases. Police/ Fire/ EMS services are also thinly staffed by comparison to other islands, if your first responders and medical workers get Covid, things will get dire quickly. Honolulu of course being the most resource rich of the islands will naturally be able to absorb more risk. Smaller island may not. This is compounded by the fact that on any island, help will potentially be long in coming. (Ever have to wait for ambulance in an emergency? Well multiply that by 100) I could envision a help call to one of the US Navy’s hospital ships to intervene…but we never want to see that, because there isn’t much after that back up plan.
Please let Kauai implement restrictions for public safety that fits the infrastructure and limitations. I recommend going on an initial 30 day implementation and communication with the military for support, with the option to extend a week at a time as needed. I tend to be one who sides for taking certain risks in order to maintain normalcy, but unique to a Kauai- the Governor should heed the requests.
Hang in there. Stay strong.
Aloha,
Rick
Right on, Rick. A sensible approach to a sensitive issue in a sensitive health environment. Mahalo for being a voice of thoughtful reason.
The Canadian plan seems fair – sensible without being too restrictive. We are planning our next trip to Kauai at the end of May 2021 and will be there for three weeks, so a few days in quarantine wouldn’t be awful. I wouldn’t do it if my visit was only a week.
We were originally planning to travel to HI in April; rescheduled for the beginning of December; cancelled a couple of weeks ago and heading to the beach in CA instead. We felt there was a good chance the restrictions would tighten and didn’t want to risk losing our investment at this point. We hope to travel there again next year!
It’s sad to say but until things get standardized I’m not investing in a Hawaiian vacation. I’ve made 5 visits to Oahu over the last 7 years and most averaged 4-5 days. I absolutely adore the people and places!
I’m already opposed to the hotel industry’s escalating use of resort and cleaning fees which adds more and more “hidden” costs to my destination vacations. Even a $200 RT flight can’t make up for the extra costs. Adding now the extra costs of testing, I just can’t afford it.
For now I think I will continue, as I have all this year, in driving to long weekend get-a-ways (6 states and over 20,000 miles). But I shall dream of a time when Hawaiian travel opens up again…..
Thanks for the update. We are monitoring closely as we would like to travel to Kuwaii in January (we stay in rentals not hotels).
2nd test after arrival seems reasonable. 3-day quarantine would be tough in a rental, would not go if 3 days in a hotel was required.
Hi Doug.
Thanks for the input.
Aloha.
Well, they better make a decision pretty quick as I am supposed to fly on December 3rd! I can stay at my condo for 3 days on lockdown but not 14! I am only going to be on island 9 nights so this will put a squeeze on all the work I am trying to get completed on such a short stay. Maybe I will just cancel and the Garden Island will not get any of my Christmas shopping $$$.
Better than giving us something else
Its ok, I’m not canceling. I paid for my trip and will be there with my family.
Welcome to Paradise … not.
We were due in today. Cancelled last week and we travel to Mexico tomorrow. Hawaii is too much of a vacation investment in time, length of flight and cost to risk for vacation. We look forward to going in 2 years. Hope covid is a bad memory by then
Visiting next April, but want freedom from testing and other restrictions. This is our third try we keep moving. Should we move again?
I was just in Kauai for less than 3 days visiting friends. I am going back for 8 days in February but will cancel if we need to quarantine for 3 days. We are already paying over $1,000 in covid tests and now this?
I absolutely agree with the quarantine until 2 neg. tests. Maui has more hospital capacity than Kauai but not much. We have seen how quickly we can go from 0 cases to lots from a community gathering of less people than are on a plane together. It kind of feels like waiting for the other shoe to drop over here with so many tourists back now. We have been so easy going for so long with low to no cases here and everyone being really careful (mostly). Now the fear is back like in March. Stay safe out there.
Ane T
Kauai is a very small special loving paradise. This is a pandemic…it’s not business as usual. Put us on your bucket list…Aloha
The Politicians In Hawaii Are Morons No More Needs to Be said..
You are absolutely correct!