Gov. David Ige Friday signed the 20th proclamation on COVID-19 to allow inter-county travelers vaccinated in the state of Hawaii to bypass the pre-travel testing and/or quarantine requirement starting May 11. The state’s Safe Travels platform went online Friday, allowing travelers to upload their travel information and vaccination data.
The proclamation in part reads “COVID-19 continues to endanger the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Hawaii and a response requires the serious attention, effort, and sacrifice of all people in the State to avert unmanageable strains on our healthcare system and other catastrophic impacts to the State.”
It continues to state that as of May 7, 2021, the recorded number of cases and deaths has continued to increase, with more than 33,000 documented cases of COVID19 in the State and 486 deaths attributed to this disease. As of May 7, the state has access to data for the purpose of validating vaccination information of persons vaccinated in the state, but the process is not fully automated and the state continues to develop a means to access data for the purpose of validating vaccination information of persons vaccinated outside of the State.
The proclamation still requires persons to quarantine if they test positive for COVID-19 or if they are a close contact of a person confirmed positive for COVID-19, regardless of whether the persons were fully vaccinated or subsequently obtained negative test results.
Any person who intentionally, knowingly or recklessly engages in conduct that violates the provisions provided herein, or any applicable State or county rule, directive or order related to travelers, including the completion of any document required by the state or any county, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, the person shall be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
The 20th proclamation addresses only the inter-county travel vaccine exception which continues for the duration of the previous 19th proclamation. The 19th proclamation — which includes the eviction moratorium prohibiting evictions for failure to pay rent, and the extension of expirations for driver’s licenses, state IDs and permits – continues through June 8, 2021.
The provisions will be re-evaluated to determine if they will be included in the next proclamation.