Question: If our grandson’s flight departs the East Coast on March 25 but lands in Hawaii on March 26, does he have to make a Safe Travels account? I think the answer is no, but the website talks so much about what passengers must do prior to arrival that we don’t want to give him bad information.
Answer: No, he does not. Any domestic passenger “landing in the state of Hawaii will encounter no screening process after 11:59 p.m. on March 25,” said Sheri Kajiwara, Safe Travels administrator.
Likewise, she said, quarantine checks on domestic passengers who entered Hawaii without a quarantine exception will end when Safe Travels expires, even if they have not completed all five days of self-quarantine. This will be true only for passengers in travel- related quarantine, not people quarantined because they have COVID- 19, she said. “The Department of Health has their own process for medically quarantined (COVID-19)- positive people,” she said.
Under Hawaii’s Safe Travels COVID-19 screening program, the vast majority of domestic passengers arrive without having to quarantine, because they are fully vaccinated, have tested negative for COVID-19 or have recovered from the disease. The few who choose to quarantine tend to be returning Hawaii residents, Kajiwara has said.
The vaccine exception is most commonly used. Of 25,473 domestic travelers who arrived in Hawaii on Wednesday, 20,993 used the vaccine exception. Only 388 people entered self-quarantine, according to the state’s COVID-19 portal, hawaiicovid19.com.
Travelers arriving in Hawaii directly from international airports must comply with federal requirements separate from the Safe Travels program. They should consult their airlines, the state says.
Q: Early on, there was publicity about a COVID- 19 test being developed in Hawaii. What ever happened with that?
A: The Assure-100 Rapid COVID-19 Test developed by Oceanit Foundry LLC in Honolulu received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday. Read the FDA’s authorization letter at 808ne.ws/assure.
This nasal swab antigen test requires no lab processing or extra equipment to read the result, which appears on the test stick within 20 minutes. Health care providers and other approved entities can use it for their patients, but it is not yet authorized for over-the-counter sales. Oceanit plans to seek that authorization, according to media reports.
Some at-home COVID- 19 rapid antigen tests require a smartphone or other internet device to obtain the test result via a digital app, which has frustrated readers who lack a smartphone or who prefer a low-tech test for privacy reasons. The Assure-100 requires no tools beyond those in the test kit.
Q: What is the purpose of the bike lane installed on Alakea Street between King and Hotel streets? I’ve never seen anyone riding a bicycle on Alakea Street. This is a needless traffic hazard.
A: The one-way protected bike lane mauka- bound on Alakea Street connects the Hotel Street Bikeway to the King Street protected bike lane, according to Honolulu County’s Complete Streets website, 808ne.ws/csurbancore.
Mahalo
Many good wishes to the good Samaritan who turned in my car keys at Walmart in Mililani. I was in a rush, scattered and frazzled and did not realize that I had lost my keys until I went to my car. I was so relieved that someone had turned it in to lost-and-found. As the store clerk gave me my keys, someone in the return line said, “I just got chicken skin” because it was so touching that someone had gone out of their way to turn in my keys. Thank you so much, and may you have a shower of good things in your life. — Grateful shopper
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
