101 thoughts on “Will Kauai Get Approval To Quarantine All Visitors?”
Renae T
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
Beat of Hawaii
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.
Rae-Marie M
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.
Shannon C.
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.
Beat of Hawaii
Hi Shannon.
Perhaps something similar will end up happening here.
Aloha.
David B
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?
Lynde C
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.
Dada M.
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.
David B
“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.
Lynde C
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.
John S
Excellent points Lynde!
Vivian H.
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.
Lynde C
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.
KA
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.
Scott W
When will the decision be made?
Nancy R
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.
Bob L.
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)!
Rick S.
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
Beth P.
Right on, Rick. A sensible approach to a sensitive issue in a sensitive health environment. Mahalo for being a voice of thoughtful reason.
Judy B
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.
Comments are closed.
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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.