Discover Hawaii 
In a press conference on September 16, Hawaii’s Gov. Ige announced that the pre-travel testing program will begin October 15, 2020. The pre-travel testing program will allow trans-Pacific visitors to be exempt from the 14-day quarantine by providing a negative COVID-19 test result within 72-hours of travel.
Limited details of the pre-travel testing program were discussed in the press conference. More information will be forthcoming. The details of Hawaii’s pre-travel testing program that were mentioned in the press conference were:
- Hawaii has agreements in place with CVS and Kaiser Permanente to provide testing for travelers to Hawaii. Additional testing parters will be announced in the coming weeks. Walgreens was a potential partner that was mentioned.
- Visitors will be responsible for the costs of the tests. The estimated test cost is $140 per person.
- In the press conference, the exact timeframe of the 72-hour window of testing was a bit unclear. The governor said tests are to be taken within 72 hours “prior to arrival”, while Lt. Gov. Green indicated that the test will need to be taken no more than 72 hours “before travel.” This will be a key piece of information that will need to be better defined.
- At this time, the acceptable test is to be a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) conducted in a certified CLIA laboratory. The lieutenant governor mentioned that as other, reliable tests become available, they may be used in the future.
- If test results are not available at the time of arrival in Hawaii, travelers will have to remain in quarantine until they get their test result. A process will be in place to verify results to release those persons from quarantine provided they receive a negative result.
- All arriving passengers will be subject to the pre-travel testing program — including children of all ages.
- No commercial testing will be provided in Hawaii airports at the present time.
Per KHON2, the governor provided the following graphic to illustrate the steps.
Again, we expect Hawaii officials to release more details in the coming days. We will share them as they become available. To keep up to date, be sure and subscribe to our free newsletter for ongoing updates.
The post Hawaii to start pre-travel testing program October 15, 2020 appeared first on Go Visit Hawaii.
