Interisland travelers to Hawaii County will have choices on how to avoid quarantine after they arrive.
The new system, effective Wednesday, will enable interisland travelers to either test for COVID-19 no more than 72 hours before traveling to the Big Island, or be tested after arrival.
A negative post-arrival test would allow the traveler to be released from quarantine. This means that Hawaii County will now be in line with the statewide interisland 72-hour pre-travel test policy, according to a statement this afternoon from Mayor Harry Kim’s office.
“The new system allows people to determine how long or if they’ll be quarantined,” Kim said. “We wanted to come up with a policy that would address the current system’s problems, such as the large number of people that had to be quarantined for 14 days and the inability of the county to monitor and enforce the quarantine policies.”
“This new policy is simpler, more sustainable and gives people a choice. It will also lessen the number of people under quarantine.”
For more information, please call Civil Defense at 935-0031. The online format for seeking modified self-quarantine or an exemption from the self-quarantine is: https://tinyurl.com/yxjdcewe.
See Wednesday’s Tribune-Herald for more.