Case said such testing could include fever testing and, as available, on-site rapid COVID-19 testing. Ed Case (D-Hawaii), have brought up testing as a way to diminish some of the risk involved with reopening tourism.Ĭase has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to respond by Wednesday to his request to allow Hawaii to require testing of all intended passengers, including airline crew, prior to boarding direct flights to Hawaii. A future fine and court date is not a deterrent for tourists, they say. They’ve also asked the courts to use ankle bracelets on any tourists cited for violating quarantine rules. The Senate committee has asked Mayor Kirk Caldwell to step up quarantine enforcement. The rise is part of the reason that the Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 has been putting pressure on the state Department of Transportation and HTA to tighten loopholes in airport screening and enforcement. Still, it was the third-highest visitor count of the quarantine coming just behind Tuesday and March 26. The count is a “rounding error” for most of the visitor industry, Vieira said. After all, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported that only 264 visitors came to Hawaii on Tuesday. Vieira said it’s also likely that most members of the state’s visitor industry won’t reopen with a demand-dropping quarantine in place. They need time to order food and supplies and train for new safety protocols. “Hotels that have been closed will need 30 to 60 days to get ready to reopen. “If June 30 is the end of the quarantine, we won’t see tourism reopening on July 1,” Vieira said. If the other islands also extend the quarantine, Vieira said accommodations and airlines will lose some of the bookings that they were taking in anticipation of a July 1 reopening date. We have to set a date to reopen tourism and the Governor should be leading these directives.” However, now, “it’s time for some bravery and risk. Keith Vieira, principal of KV & Associates, Hospitality Consulting, said hotels have supported the quarantine in the interest of public safety. Kawakami’s extended quarantine order comes as the state continues to struggle with lockdown loopholes and fears rising visitor counts could cause the spread of COVID-19. “That said, the risk of the virus returning is most clearly associated with incoming travelers, whether residents or visitors, so we feel it is necessary to extend the mandatory quarantine.” “We have taken temporary control over the coronavirus with our aggressive restrictions, and we feel we can begin to ease them in a responsible manner,” Kawakami said in a statement. Ige hasn’t indicated if he’ll extend the state’s quarantine past May 31, but did approve Kawakami’s request. Kawakami signed an emergency rule Wednesday to extend the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine for incoming passengers to Kauai through June. The quest to find balance has become a political push and pull in Hawaii as it has around the country. It’s also going to hinge on the community’s tolerance for risk, which still seems rather tepid. Ige has said there is no explicit timeline for tourism to reopen, which will depend on data. The devastating drop in tourism has collapsed the main driver for Hawaii’s economy and led to a staggering loss of jobs and a corresponding increase in human service needs. That’s significantly fewer than the 856,250 visitors that came to Hawaii in April 2019. On March 26 the state began a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine for trans-Pacific passengers, which was expanded April 1 to interisland passengers.įrom the quarantine’s start through Tuesday, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported only 7,392 visitors came to Hawaii. ![]() So we must remain vigilant and take small steps toward reopening travel to the islands in our effort to avoid a resurgence in cases in Hawaii.” “At the start of the pandemic, most if not all of our cases were travel-related. “We will be very careful in reopening domestic and international travel because of the continuing virus activity around the globe, which is very different from what we are seeing here in Hawaii,” Ige said. David Ige and state health officials continue to stress the importance of staying vigilant and preparing for a potentially stronger second wave of the virus. Tourism, however, remains under strict lockdown as Gov. Also reopening Friday are Kauai’s beaches, which are part of a two-week pilot program that allows people to utilize the beach under certain restrictions designed to minimize the spread of COVID-19. It’s a hopeful sign for some that several of Oahu’s shopping malls and retail centers will reopen Friday following reopenings Monday on Maui and last week on Kauai and Hawaii island. Hawaii’s low COVID-19 infection and mortality rates have increased calls to start reopening the state’s economy - but support to restart tourism is still mixed.
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