Hawaii’s stringent travel restrictions for domestic visitors may be lifted by spring, said Lt. Gov. Josh Green (D) a few days ago.
According to the official, talks are ongoing about removing all travel restrictions in the coming weeks.
“I would expect those restrictions to begin to fall away in the spring,” he said
“But one thing we’ve learned about COVID is it does sometimes throw one a curveball… people didn’t really predict a highly, highly contagious omicron variant; otherwise we would have already been there.”
Thus far, only domestic passengers who have been fully vaccinated in the United States are exempt from Hawaii’s pre-travel testing and quarantine requirements.
In order to bypass the five-day quarantine, passengers must produce proof of vaccination or a negative test before departure to Hawaii.
Foreign visitors, however, must still show proof of vaccination as well as a negative COVID-19 test.
Gov. David Ige recently stated that booster shots will not be required for a person to be considered “fully vaccinated.”
In fact, customers in Maui County no longer need to provide confirmation of a booster at indoor bars, restaurants, or gyms.
According to Mayor Mike Victorino, the move is the consequence of a significant decrease in COVID-19 cases during the time the measure was in place.
“We are relaxing the pandemic rules to a degree due to the number of cases dropping through county and state, and hospitals lessened with the burden of high numbers.
The island of Oahu is also set to ease its “Safe Access Oahu” program from Mar. 6.
Visitors to the island will no longer need to submit proof of vaccination or a negative test before entering restaurants, bars, or gyms.
Although forty-nine states have already announced plans to remove their indoor mask mandates, Hawaii will keep the restriction for the time being.
“At this time, we will also maintain the indoor mask mandate and other rules that have helped us manage this pandemic while reopening the economy,” said Ige.