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Hawaii Covid testing


AlanRRT
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Most of you are probably aware that Hawaii is requiring a negative Covid test prior to travelling there.  I recently found out that not just a Covid test, but one at a testing center approved by Hawaii, and they're all on the west coast of the mainland United States.  Friends of my sister found out the hard way.

Here is a link to the approved centers:

Hawaii Trusted Testing Partners & Test Costs for COVID-19 (hawaii-guide.com)

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16 hours ago, AlanRRT said:

I recently found out that not just a Covid test, but one at a testing center approved by Hawaii, and they're all on the west coast of the mainland United States. 

Yes and no. For the drive through and airport tests they are all on the West Coast-- just did mine today for a flight to Maui on Saturday. We're currently in Seattle so used one of Hawaiian Airlines testing partners that had drive through testing by SeaTac.

 

But you can absolutely do a test thats sent to you through the mail if you are on the East Coast (or anywhere else). The one thats approved for Hawaii is by Vault. They ship you a vile that you have to get on a zoom call with a technician and spit into. You then ship it back and your results are back in usually 48 hours. We did this when we went to Maui in October. Super easy and can be done from anywhere in the US. 

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Thank you for that information.  I'm going to Hawaii in October, and I live in California, so if the requirement is still on then I'm OK.  My sister is going at the same time, but she lives in Florida, so I've been wondering how she's going to do it.

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2 hours ago, AlanRRT said:

Thank you for that information.  I'm going to Hawaii in October, and I live in California, so if the requirement is still on then I'm OK.  My sister is going at the same time, but she lives in Florida, so I've been wondering how she's going to do it.

I'm interested in this because we are also Floridians.  We are booked for a Hawaiian cruise Nov 2021, but need to provide final payment by the end of July.  We are getting our first vaccinations this afternoon.  From what I have read, it won't matter if you are vaccinated, testing will still be required before entering Hawaii and even inter-island....at least at this point.  Hotel reservations I have made for pre & post cruise all have warned about quarantines, etc.  I'm hoping that this eases off by end July, or we'll be cancelling.

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5 hours ago, hernando52 said:

From what I have read, it won't matter if you are vaccinated, testing will still be required before entering Hawaii and even inter-island....at least at this point. 

I think the situation will be pretty fluid as things progress with vaccinations. Just talking to the technician who performed my drive through Covid test yesterday, the first question they ask you is if you have had the first shot of a vaccination yet (I haven't). I think reading between the lines there, proof of vaccination will be sufficient in the not too distant future. 

 

5 hours ago, hernando52 said:

Hotel reservations I have made for pre & post cruise all have warned about quarantines, etc.  I'm hoping that this eases off by end July, or we'll be cancelling.

We were there in October right as Maui reopened. The hotels take the proof of negative test very seriously as they are the ones that are responsible for you if you don't adhere to it. If you have to quarantine in a hotel, your door is actually allowed to only be opened with a security guard present to deliver food or put trash into the hallway-- an alarm goes off if its opened without authorization and you are not provided a key to it so you cant come and go as you please even if you wanted to. 

 

That being said, its very easy to test out of the quarantine requirement with a tiny bit of planning ahead.  The QR Code system they have, almost like a covid negative passport, is easy to upload to their system and once you land its sort of like going through a quick passport screening. There's obviously no guaranteed cruises will even be running there by July but if they are its very easy to travel even with the current restrictions in place. 

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The Hawaiian Governor recently...just this week...said that as soon as CDC issues guidance on vaccinations and travel, Hawaii will likely remove the requirement for testing/quarantine even if vaccinated. However, for those who are planning on travel in later 202, that is still light years away, in terms of changes during the Covid era. Much can change.

 

We traveled to Hawaii in early December, so we did extensive research on testing options and methods. We enjoyed our stay on Maui, and everyone we encountered was very happy to see us back. Times have been tough over there as well.

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  • 1 month later...

CDC said today that  with vaccine you dont have to quarantine if exposed to Covid BUT you have to have had your last vaccine dose less than 90 days prior to traveling. We have had both doses but our cruise is not until 11/27. Therefore we would be back to square one. I cant imagine the logistics of having to get the vaccine every 3 months, just to be able to travel. I have my first grandbaby due in May out of state, a wedding in August out of state and the Hawaii cruise in November.

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1 hour ago, sugcarol said:

CDC said today that  with vaccine you dont have to quarantine if exposed to Covid BUT you have to have had your last vaccine dose less than 90 days prior to traveling. We have had both doses but our cruise is not until 11/27. Therefore we would be back to square one. I cant imagine the logistics of having to get the vaccine every 3 months, just to be able to travel. I have my first grandbaby due in May out of state, a wedding in August out of state and the Hawaii cruise in November.

I think you may be misunderstanding this...you don't have to get a vaccine every 90 days to travel. I seriously doubt that is what they meant, and its not the impression I have got from other discussions on the topic.

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4 hours ago, sugcarol said:

CDC said today that  with vaccine you dont have to quarantine if exposed to Covid BUT you have to have had your last vaccine dose less than 90 days prior to traveling. We have had both doses but our cruise is not until 11/27. Therefore we would be back to square one. I cant imagine the logistics of having to get the vaccine every 3 months, just to be able to travel. I have my first grandbaby due in May out of state, a wedding in August out of state and the Hawaii cruise in November.

So I did some reading on this. As I understand it, the factors are according to the CDC as of now, if you are exposed to someone with Covid, and have been vaccinated, you don't need to quarantine if you are between 2 weeks and 90 days of your last vaccine shot.

 

That means you can still travel, but would probably need to quarantine for 10 days (dropped from 14 a month or so ago) if you weren't in that range of dates.

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On 2/11/2021 at 3:36 PM, sugcarol said:

Therefore we would be back to square one. I cant imagine the logistics of having to get the vaccine every 3 months, just to be able to travel.

I am not a Dr so want to qualify that right out of the gate but from what I am hearing from friends who are in this field is that its going to be a wait and see thing. They need more information to know how transmissible it is from folks that have been vaccinated already to other people so this is a precautionary stance until they figure that out more definitively and until we reach herd immunity. 

 

In all likelihood we will all need boosters at some point in the future against some of these other strains to fortify the initial vaccine we got and it's also highly likely that this will be a yearly shot like the flu. It wouldn't surprise me if those of us that travel extensively will need to get regional boosters depending on where we are traveling to for a number of years. 

 

 

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