VIDEO: Governor David Ige Says Hawaii COVID-19 Testing Program Starts October 15th Before Arriving

Governor David Ige today set October 15 as the new date for a pre-arrival testing program to begin reopening tourism in Hawaii.

Now the state’s miserable industry is hoping that the third time will be the stimulus.

First announced in June, the plan was originally supposed to start on August 1st before Ige postponed it to September 1st and then to October 1st at the earliest.

“These pre-trip tests will allow us to add a greater element of security to travel to our state,” said Ige, adding that it fits into the state’s plan to address the top three challenges, namely protecting the public Strengthen health and overhaul the economy and community.

During today’s media briefing, Ige also announced a new leadership team overseeing the state’s much-criticized public health response to COVID-19. Maj. Gen. Ken Hara, director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, will lead federal, state and county resource collaboration in his role as incident commander.

Dr. Libby Char, who began today as Director of the State Department of Health, will manage the state’s public health programs and ensure that there is collaboration between state, regional and private health partners. Char replaces former DOH director Bruce Anderson, who retired yesterday after weeks of calls for his resignation or firing from frustrated community members and lawmakers, including US MP Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green assumes responsibility for the state’s pre-travel testing program and the state’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy.

“This new leadership team gives us a stronger operational structure, stronger leadership and paves the way for stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors,” said Ige.

It will be important to show that Hawaii’s public health response is robust to getting some members of the community to accept any plan that creates a path to increasing tourism.

Certainly, some Hawaiian residents appreciated the tourism dampening resulting from the trans-Pacific quarantine, both from a public health perspective and from a sustainability perspective. Before COVID-19, residents’ sentiment towards tourism was at its lowest ever.

Much of the state is suffering, however, as the decline in visitor arrivals has decimated the tourism-dependent economy of the state. The Hawaii Tourism Authority reported that visitor arrivals were down 98% in July. Despite a fairly robust January and February, arrivals were down 65% in the first seven months of this year.

Members of the Hawaiian visitor industry are concerned about the impact of another two-week hiatus in the launch of Hawaii’s pre-arrival testing program on Hawaii’s tourism-dependent economy. However, if Ige’s new date persists, this latest news isn’t the worst-case scenario many visitor industry companies feared given that Ige’s other delays have been months of setbacks.

The testing program allows travelers who have completed an FDA-cleared COVID-19 NAAT test in a CLIA laboratory and tested negative within 72 hours of traveling to Hawaii to receive a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine for passengers outside the state around since March 26th.

Today’s measures did nothing to change the inter-island quarantine, which will remain in place until at least October 15 for anyone arriving on an island other than Oahu.

For more information, see the frequently asked questions on hawaiicovid19.com.

Green, who has COVID-19 and attended the press conference while quarantined at home, said the state has partnered with Kaiser Permanente and CVS Pharmacy, which will now update their websites with information for Hawaii travelers as of the time State a company has a date.

Green said most tests will cost $ 120 to $ 140 per person, but Kaiser is considering making the test free for its members.

He said an accepted pre-arrival test is required from all arriving passengers wishing to bypass the quarantine, including children of all ages. Green said travelers who do not receive the results of their test in a timely manner prior to arrival will have to remain in quarantine until their results are returned.

Ige said those traveling to the island will need to take a test before arriving to bypass the quarantine.

“Initially, we don’t want to compete with local testing opportunities, but we’re looking at all of these new tests that come online and get FDA approval, and we’ll find the ones that are most effective and incorporate them into our testing. “Program.”

However, Green said the state will work with the state health department to streamline the pre-arrival testing program as cheaper, faster, and more reliable tests become available. In addition, Green said the state Department of Transportation had launched a call for proposals to find a partner to increase the state’s testing capacity by 13,000 tests per day.

“It will be very valuable to have thousands and thousands of tests,” said Green. “Once we’ve streamlined this, we’ll rely on the governor’s wisdom to decide if we need to expand our tests when the people come.”

Green said that improved testing capacity, especially as simpler and cheaper tests become available, could also be a way to implement a second test requirement to ensure travelers coming to the islands are not positive after the 72-hour window be tested.

While the state is working on its pre-arrival testing program and a master plan to reopen Hawaiian tourism, counties have begun developing contingency plans.

Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami said Tuesday that Governor David Ige signed Kauai Emergency Rule 16, which allows visitors to participating resorts to leave their hotel rooms to access the resort’s property, including the on-site pools and restaurants to use during their mandatory quarantine period.

But there is a catch: you must agree to wear an electronic surveillance wristband that is tracked by participating resorts.

Kauai was the first district to receive Ige approval for a resort bubble ordinance, as the governor signed an ordinance on Aug. 20 that would allow counties to formulate resort bubble plans.

The establishment of resort bubbles on Kauai could boost tourism, but Kawakami told the star advertiser Tuesday that they primarily serve as a contingency plan to prevent tourism from closing entirely in the event of another COVID-19 surge got to.

“You should be working on contingency plans at the same time as the master plan,” he said. “In such a situation you can assume that something will go wrong.”

Watch a rerun of Iges media briefing below or check out Gov’s Facebook page. Ige.