Those looking to travel from county to county within Hawaii, which incorporates most instances of interisland travel, have not had a simple go of it over the past year.
However, that has changed. All interisland restrictions and requirements were lifted on Tuesday, and travelers will no longer need to take a COVID-19 test or undergo a quarantine period. Getting vaccinated is not a requirement.
Another benefit that will be enjoyed by interisland travelers is not needing to stand in line after arriving at their destination, waiting to show proof of them being vaccinated or a recent negative test result.
In addition, everyone who has been vaccinated in Hawaii can now travel to the state from elsewhere without needing to provide a recent negative test result or, in lieu of that, quarantining. However, those who are unvaccinated or who have been vaccinated elsewhere must still provide a negative test result from the past 72 hours or participate in a 10-day quarantine period. Proof of valid in-state vaccination should be uploaded to Hawaii’s Safe Travels website prior to traveling.
Meanwhile, those simply traveling interisland should keep their plane ticket readily accessible as they may need to show it to prove that their travel was interisland and that they were not flying from outside Hawaii.
What prompted these changes was, according to Gov. David Ige, the state experiencing relatively low positive cases and hitting a vaccination rate of 55% two days earlier. The next milestone will occur when 60% have been fully vaccinated. At that point, those who have been vaccinated elsewhere in the United States and can show proof of that will not need to adhere to any requirements.
Once that percentage has reached 70%, all travel restrictions will be lifted. At that time, the requirement to wear masks while indoors in Hawaii is also expected to come to an end.
However, Ige added that he may alter these targets and resulting guidelines if other information supersedes the importance of vaccination rates.