LIHU‘E — Gov. David Ige has pushed back Hawai‘i’s pre-travel testing program to Oct. 15, and announced a new leadership team to realign the state’s COVID-19 efforts.
Pre-travel testing will allow those entering the state to avoid the current state-mandated 14-day quarantine if they provide a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival, effectively reopening the economy.
The test may be no earlier than three days before the flight arrives with an FDA-approved nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), performed using a nasal swab. Arrivals can show proof of negative test results from a CLIA certified laboratory. This is in addition to temperature checks and mandatory travel and health forms.
The interisland quarantine for anyone arriving on any island other than O‘ahu continues through Oct. 15, unless terminated or extended by a separate emergency proclamation.
The state is currently partnered with CVS and Kaiser Permanente for the tests.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green will oversee the pre-travel testing program, Ige announced. Part of Green’s duties includes adding additional testing partners and sourcing new testing options. Green is also responsible for planning the state’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy.
“Mass testing, contact tracing and pre-travel testing programs are key measures I’ve long-supported,” Green said in a statement. “Their implementation, along with a vaccination plan for when they become available, will be critical to our success in managing the coronavirus.”
Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency Director Maj. Gen. Ken Hara will continue his role as incident commander, working across federal, state and county resources. And, Department of Health Director Dr. Libby Char will lead the management of the state’s public health programs and collaboration between state, county, and private healthcare partners.
Former DOH director Dr. Viginia Presseler will lead Laulima Alliance, a team of public and private sector resources focusing on pandemic related policy and programs.
“Together with the progress, we’ve made, and continue to make, in the fight against COVID-19, this new leadership team gives us confidence that the time is right to launch our pre-travel COVID-19 testing program, which is an important step toward reviving our economy while continuing to protect public health,” Ige said.
Following the announcement, Hawaiian Airlines, the state’s largest airline carrier, issued a statement welcoming the reopening of the economy.
“It is another important safety layer that strengthens the comprehensive protocols Hawaiian Airlines and our visitor industry partners have adopted in recent months to protect our employees, guests and community. With these measures in place, it is time to begin to reopen our economy.”
Last month, Peter Ingram, Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO, announced furlough notices and company reductions, clearing the workforce by 816 jobs, with 341 of the furloughs involuntary among flight attendants. Hawaiian also had plans to reduce pilot staffing by 173, with 101 of those reductions involuntary.
3 deaths, 102 new cases
Wednesday, the State Department of Health officials reported three coronavirus-related deaths and 102 new infections statewide.
This brings the state to 103 fatalities and 10,946 cases statewide reported since the end of February. Included in this total are four new cases on Hawai‘i Island, 97 on O‘ahu, and one case was diagnosed out of state. The state’s Department of Public Safety recorded two new cases.
Kaua‘i currently has no active cases on the island, but five individuals area in quarantine due to their contact with an O‘ahu case, according to the Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency.
Mayor Derek Kawakami said the Kaua‘i Police Department is currently monitoring about 2,000 travelers in mandatory quarantine, the majority being residents who have returned home.
Did we read that right: “The interisland quarantine for anyone arriving on any island other than O‘ahu continues through Oct. 15, unless terminated or extended by a separate emergency proclamation.“
Doesn’t that mean that Gov Ige is only removing the mandatory 2 week quarantine from Oahu, and that the rest of the Hawaiian islands will still require the mandatory 2 week quarantine, even if you test negative for the virus?
Numerous people we’ve spoken with on the mainland (USA and Canada), say that given the choice of visiting Oahu, or doing 2 week quarantine on the outer islands, or being locked into a Resort Bubble with police monitored jail watches, they’ll choose Mexico or the Caribbean instead, plus those are much shorter flights. Longer flights from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the South Pacific are out of the question, besides knowledgeable vacation travelers don’t consider Oahu as a vacation destination.
Besides, let’s face it, only KAUAI is the island that looks like the Hawaii of one’s dreams. otherwise why are 95% of pictures and videos of travel Ads of Hawaii show only places on Kaua’i.
The way the Quarantine will be extended for the outer islands through October 15th, demonstrates clear discrimination against savvy travelers to Hawaii wanting only the outer islands for vacation; as well as unfairly steering all tourism dollars to Oahu.
Don’t get us started on the added safety of visitors and returning residents who test positive for the virus and the health benefits of their already having the bio-identical antibodies and immunity, as well as their contributions to herd immunity, which is the termination to outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemic, while reducing the need for risky vaccines.
FINALLY, some common sense.
If our ‘government’ is so focused on testing/positive case counts, it only makes sense to acknowledge the flipside (negative tests).
Now, maybe we can all get back to earning again.
It’s strange to see US leaders all over the country use a 72 hour window. It’s simply due to our inadequate lab system. All epidemiologists have been stating a 24 hour or less test is the only way to be successful. And our current test has a large failure rate. There’s no way we won’t see a big spread on Kauai now. Congress let everyone down by not taking care of businesses and people.
On CNN https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hawaii-reopening-october-15-covid-19/index.html, the world is looking an algorithm of different scenarios for visiting Hawaii. What’s missing from this plan is a repeat test 5-7 days after the first test. If the traveler is exposed to COVID after receiving the negative results from the first test, and becomes positive during their stay in Hawaii, under the current suggested algorithm, no one will know, especially if the traveler is asymptomatic (without symptoms). I hope opening up Hawaii is a plan in progress and, indeed, a second test will be required. If not, prepare for the next surge thanks to an inadequate plan to open up Hawaii. We the residents will be the recipients of this faulty planning and may pay for it with out lives.
Finally Ige seems to be giving a glimmer of hope as to assurance of an October 15 opening of the outer islands. However he should go on now and open interisland flights otherwise his announcement is an empty gesture. He has milked this thing for all the political clout he can muster. As a frequent visitor to Maui and Kauai I would have no problem with a five day follow up test after arrival if it gives the locals more confidence. All seems reasonable if Ige follows up by letting the interisland flight ban expire or better yet lift it now!!
Its funny reading these posts taking a position that this has anything to do with a virus. I could poke a thousand holes in the Covid Response and Quarantine monitoring program. Convenient how the ban is being lifted so close to election? Does anyone think it wont be pushed again into November? WAKE UP!!! I hope you all enjoyed your vacation from reality. It only cost giving up your Constitutional rights and emboldening a tyrranical and corrupt Government. Where are the Soveriegnty People at? No Tourists Watching?
You left out the Trillions of dollars added to the national debt for staying home to watch NETFLIX. Future generations will be paying for this in the USA. Hope everyone enjoyed their “free” money. SMH.
When a person tests negative to the Covid19 virus it means that they are really “virgin” to the exposure and infection by the virus.
Meaning they are without exposure and infection as well as lacking in the specific and proper antibodies, and other necessary immune defense cells, and that they are “ripe”to contracting the virus, and thus will allow the virus, if infected, to replicate or multiply in their body, from even before the moment of testing to however many hours or days it takes for their body’s nervous system and immune system to develop enough antibodys,and whatever other immune defense cells are necessary, to deactivate the Covid19 viruses in that person’s body.
Worse scenario would be the person giving the virus test spreads the virus to the person being tested, especially if that long wicked looking Q-tip going up your nose is infected.
Or the negative recently tested person contracts the virus anywhere along their journey to the islands even if on arrival in Honolulu or Outer Island Airport, thus being now able to infect others upon their arrival or anywhere or anytime during their stay, or including a negative tested returning resident of Hawaii.
Thus the most highest risk for us is the Negative tested visitor or returning resident, especially if they qualify for an essential Quarantine Exemption and are allowed into the community, or exposed to hotel employees in the Resort Bubble System, a bubble obviously able to burst causing hotel employees to,bring the virus to family especially the sick and elderly.
On the other hand, an asyymptomatic (no symptoms) positive tested traveler would already have the antibodies necessary to have already deactivated the virus and thus be asyptomatic or have no symptoms.
As well an asymptomatic positive tested person would already have the antibodies, etc., to render any new exposure/infection while prior to or while traveling, that would render any infecting Covid19 virus inactivated and not possible to infect the next person.
A positive tested person could be disease free from 6 months ago when they were first infected and were asymptotic, because their body at the time of infection was able to produce the correct and enough antibodies to render all the viruses inactive. This type of positive tested person, whether infected disease free 6 months ago, or last week, would be the person in the category of having Herd Immunity, the very people we want coming to Hawaii, or anywhere else for that matter.
A person with Herd Immunity cannot pass the virus to others because their own functional antibodies, and thus their already functional personal immunity, deactivates any Covid19 virus entering their body. The result is there is no further spread of the virus from that person to another person.
it makes only sense to welcome positive tested travelers without making them quarantine. Since any Covid19 virus that enters their bodies is deactivated, they actually lessen the amount of Covid19 in our community. These Herd Immunity people are like sponges “soaking up” random covid19 virus in our community, thus protecting the rest of us. no There are many Herd Immunity people living in our community symptom free. When you think of it masks and social distancing in a bad way prevent Herd Immunity.
And it makes perfect sense to quarantine the negative tested travelers who have had no Covid19 virus exposure and are ripe to become infected with the virus and pass it on to others.
Furthermore, masking and social distancing prevents necessary Herd Immunity and foments further spread of the virus and disease. it also prevents social interaction and stifles the beginnings of new relationships perpetuating the human species and downline family heritage. Young people don’t meet the person they may have been meant for.
Furthermore enough scientists are saying that masking and 6’ distancing are ineffective to stop the spreading of the virus especially in family settings and Big Box stores and any store really. The only thing which can stop the virus is the strength of the host, that is the functional ability of ones own immune system in coordination with a functional nervous system.
Ignorance of ones own immune system promotes false hope in the sales gimmick of what too many “believe in” with the upcoming vaccine.
The vaccine is supposed to match the virus, but this manmade disease virus, no matter what laboratory manufactures it will not be bio-identical and will not allow the development of the specific antibodies capable of defeating or deacrivating the Covid19 virus.
This is especially true as the virus mutates for its own survival as it passes from one person, family, neighborhood, city, state, or country in the world to another. The virus mutation precludes the vaccine from being bio-identical, and thus the vaccine is as much being worthless; the vaccine is also a burden on the immune system itself. The vaccine is capable of being a disease in itself, and why some people get sick after being vaccinated.
If the vaccine, which is in itself not without risk, is not bio-identical to the antigen called Covid19 virus, it has no value in the “fight” against this Covid19 virus and is a foolish attempt to put more disease into our bodies, thus our families and communities. Beware the masked person trying to inject you with a hastily manufactured disease vaccine. Already vaccine test patients have developed serious neurological disease from the Covid19 vaccine.
The CDC includes Disease Prevention in their scope of work. Yet every chronic degenerative End of Life disease has been getting worse accumulating in more and more people over decades of time and impacting, really killing, more people every year to the point that the measures the CDC are taking are of no value, and their chief scientist that most people “believe in” has been on the CDC longer than 5 of our Presidents with only our national health worsening to the point where 80% of the American public takes 1 or more prescription drugs a day.
If you are on prescription drugs you are sick; thus we are a vulnerable sick nation. And a lead scientist for the CDC is said to benefit from patents on virus and vaccine, while the health of our nation deteriorates, as is demonstrated by the impact of this pandemic.
Further, facts demonstrate that false reporting is actually a worse pandemic. It is now known that only 6% of the people who allegedly died from the virus, that only this 6% actually died from the virus.
The false claims that the other 94% of the deaths were from the virus have caused worldwide fear and unnecessary drastic measures ruining people lives and businesses. When in fact those 94% died from their unnecessary lifetime accumulating chronic degenerative end of life diseases actively being treated by prescription drugs from and under the treatment and direction of their doctors.
To not suffer an early death and not fall into the prescription drug trap, patients need to stand up for their health instead of going along with worldwide drug sales, all of which have more than 1 negative disease side effect, leading to the use of more prescription drugs.
Patients when they are approximately 30 years old are told by their doctor to take 1 or more prescription drugs for their, for example, high blood pressure or their high blood sugar, etc., both of which diseases, as well as most others, are the result often of 30 years of accumulation of diseases before signs and symptoms of disease rear their ugly heads prompting a visit to a prescription doctor.
Incredibly parents unknowing about health, feed their infants
and children junk, fast, chemical, and sugar loaded foods.
So when a prescription for drugs is being offered, drugs that you will be expected to take for the rest of your life, drugs that will only “juggle” your signs and symptoms of disease, and allow the disease(s) you have to rage on, and continue to accumulate, in your body; you, the patient need to be strong in the defense of the health of your body, and say to the person offering the drugs, that you are not interested in taking drugs, but instead you must speak up and tell that doctor or nurse, that you don’t want drugs, but instead you want to get well, that you want your health back. And how do you go about that return to health.
Patients must find out the causes of disease and prevent or
avoid those causes. Anyone telling them the casi of their
disease(s) is unknown, means that that person does not know
and you must find a person that does know.
You see, taking prescription drugs is HELLth Care, it always allows for more disease and more side effects, some of which are deadly.
The people thought to originally be dying of the virus, were actually dying of their chronic degenerative End of Life diseases and the complications of their prescription drugs.
The Pandemic has turned out to be Welcome Warning. If you have any one or more of the diseases that require long term use of prescription drugs, you are at risk of dying early and losing your God given optimal healthy active Life Longevity.
In order to optimally be healthy you can’t be on prescription drugs or even over the counter drugs from the store or pharmacy. You need to be self functioning. After all your body built itself during pregnancy, only your Mother provided you with the nutrients to do so, but the actual making of your incredible body was done under the direction of your own nervous system.
For,Health, You need to be self pro-active every day, working on amd participating in your own health. But you need to be educated in what health is and how you can be, maintain, and/or restore your health.
The actual definition of health is that 100% of your cells, tissues, organs, and your organs’ and your body systems, should function 100%, 100% of the time, requiring an optimal functioning nervous system to integrate all of the body parts and functions, in order for you to have mental, physical, social well being and happiness, and financial comfort as well.
Now how do you achieve this? Well the Greek word Physician means Teacher. You need to find a Health Teacher.
But right now in our society our doctors have gotten so used to the use of chemicals, that is, petrochemical drugs, drugs that serve to ignore people’s disease and instead concentrate on signs and symptoms, and thus allow those diseases to rage on inside the body accelerating the End of Life process leading to an early death. This change from actual Health Care to the current Disease Care medical system has been slowly developing over the last more than 75 to 100 years as chemicals have become able to make more and more medicines, plastic, paint, clothes, food additives, agriculture poisons sprayed on our food, synthetic vitamins, and countless thousands of other modern uses, most of them demanding warning signs in some states as causing cancer. And any chemicals made from petrochemicals are carcinogenic, cancer causing.
From our medicines made from petrochemicals in China to our clothes made from polyester petrochemicals, we as a society are deep into the convenience of petrochemicals, including chemicals made for food preservative, colors, flavors, and aromas.
As some of these these chemicals are excreted from our bodies as non-nutrient toxins, some also accumulate in our bodies over a life time even starting at birth with fake packaged, canned, and bottled food for infants, it’s no wonder by the time people are 30 years old they are already manifesting the signs and symptoms of end of life diseases, like heart and stroke disease, obesity and diabetes, cancers, and in and on like liver, lung, kidney, and digestive system failure.
You can’t expect to go to a fast food restaurant and get healthy food, nor can you expect to go to doctors that were taught only which pill for which ill to get you back to being well and healthy.
But fast food and junk food is already in place as well as hospitals and doctors. So what we need is for food sources and doctors to turn over a new leaf and offer healthy food and doctors teaching health.
It would mean food and doctors without chemicals, but we’d get our healthy food and actual physicians back teaching about health.
Clearly for the betterment of society many important things in
society need to turn over a new leaf. To change for the
betterment of all people, including the other beings of earth.
And today it is very important to have our health back so we can deactivate any viruses (there are lots of necessary good viruses in our bodies already) trying to infect our bodies, so that we have strong immune systems with rapid response antibodies and other immune defense cells, that provide us personal and Herd Immunity without disruption to ourselves and our jobs, and prevent the un -educated in health politicians, and less than capable so called health authorities from making unwise decisions that damage ourselves, our economy causing hunger, homelessness, and so many other sad things.
It is important, as they say, to Follow the Natural Path.
And remember, humans are 1 kind of vertebrates, you know the living things on earth possessing 1 or more of the following: feet, fins, feathers, and faces, and we and they all have immune systems, and collectively relying on our immune systems going back 550 million years for some of the vertebrates.
The immune systems protect the internal environment of our bodies from the external environment of earth, which has a whole lot more than just viruses to make trouble for our bodies. In this modern era, many harmful things to our bodies are modern
chemicals, many are unnecessarily in our foods, and some in our medicines, and many end up in our bodies.
This whole thing has been a total debacle. First, Once travelers are capable of arriving with testing procedure, there will be some that slip through the cracks. There will be a surge. It is inevitable. So, what has been done to prepare for that surge? Please report on that for each island. Second, Instead of trying to tackle the reopening of tourism all at once, take baby steps. Try a pilot program of pre-arrival testing for residents that can show proof of residence and that their origin of travel was Hawaii. Resident proof can be in the form of w-2, tax return, property tax category “homestead”, etc. Not just driver’s license. Not a fake lease. Origin of travel proof can be a reservation accompanied with copy of boarding pass. Make pre-arrival testing the responsibilty of resident traveler. Possibly make rapid testing available upon arrival. Do something for the locals. Lastly, quit make changes that leave locals stranded on the main land. Don’t forget we vote.