Hawaii has reopened its borders with plans to allow some tourists back on its pristine beaches—as long as they test negative for the virus or are willing to quarantine.
As part of the state’s Safe Travels program, tourists from the United States, Japan, Canada and South Korea can skip quarantine if they arrive with a negative test taken within 72 hours of arrival.
However, and we can’t stress this enough, Hawaii is very strict about what kind of test and where it’s taken. FDA-approved NAAT tests, processed by a CLIA-certified laboratory, are the only types of coronavirus tests currently being accepted, and the state will only consider tests taken at one its trusted testing and travel partners to bypass quarantine. Test results must also be uploaded to the Safe Travels Hawaii site before your flight to the islands.
Once on the islands, travellers from the four permitted countries can still expect additional temperature screenings, and approximately 25 percent of arriving passengers (across all three island airports) will be randomly chosen to take a Covid-19 test. All visitors to the Big Island will be required to take a second test upon arrival to bypass quarantine.
As for the rest of the world: anyone who has been in Brazil, China, the European Schengen area, Iran, Ireland, South Africa or the United Kingdom in the past 14 days will be denied entry completely. Travelers from any other country must undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine.
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