Many people in Hawaii are itching to travel to the mainland, even more people on the mainland are itching to travel to Hawaii.
Hawaii’s economy depends on tourism, and until it returns.. the economy here in Hawaii will remain in a real recession. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January was 10.2% compared to the revised rate of 10.3% in December. Statewide, 588,050 were employed and 67,000 unemployed in January for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 655,050. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.3% in January, down from 6.7% in December.
As it stands today, Hawaii has the “Safe Travels” program which allows people to travel to Hawaii without having to quarantine for 10 days, however, people have to pay for expensive pre-tests and take them 72 hours before travel which can be both a financial hardship as well as a time hardship.
Big Island Gazette asked Lieutenant Governor Josh Green “when do you think it will be ok for folks to travel here to Hawaii with proof of vaccinations without having to go through COVID pre-travel testing?”
“May 15th is my target for a vaccine passport approach to entering Hawaii and using that (in lieu of testing) to not require quarantine,” Lt. Gov. Green said. “Those who don’t want to be vaccinated or haven’t yet been vaccinated would use the regular Safe Travels pre-test protocols for clearance.”