This includes outreach for vaccines and boosters that must remain at the center of the public-health mission. School needs come to mind, as do supports for adequate COVID-19 testing, masks and other community reinforcements. > There is a public cost to operating Safe Travels, and with a multitude of other pandemic impacts that still will require resources, it’s reasonable to consider better ways to spend the money. This was a justifiable call, given the economic pressures on the visitor industry and the economy as a whole, to hold off on raising the bar just while case counts are waning.Īssuming the omicron wave continues to ebb, March 25 becomes a logical point at which to transition back to a normal travel routine. David Ige earlier this month decided that the improving state of the pandemic did not warrant raising the guardrails further, so did not add a vaccine booster to the requirements for a quarantine waiver. Then the delta and omicron variants brought new surges to complicate recovery omicron especially was able to break through even among those who had received a booster shot.Īs case counts finally began to wane, Gov. Proof of vaccination became another route to get a quarantine waiver, and as the vaccine distribution advanced, this helped to accelerate the visitor industry. This enabled tourism, basically shuttered since the start of the pandemic, to resume, though at a lower level.Ī lot has changed. Those who could present a negative test could escape a quarantine upon arrival. When the state’s COVID-19 screening program was launched in October 2020, it provided some insulation from the virus, in the days before anyone had access to the vaccine. The pandemic is not over, but the time has come to rethink the state’s approach to it, and to begin making some of the management of it a more private, individual matter. Safe Travels Hawaii, one of the most distinctive elements of the state’s fight against COVID-19, may be coming to the end of its natural life, when the law of diminishing returns begins to apply.
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