DeWolfe Miller, an epidemiologist, University of Hawaii emeritus professor and fellow in the American College of Epidemiology, say the state needs to keep Safe Travels in place longer. Many Hawaii businesses, especially those with visitor industry ties, have pushed to end the program soon.īut Brown and Dr. International travelers who aren’t from nations that have been added to Safe Travels are not eligible to bypass the quarantine. Unvaccinated domestic travelers age 5 and older must enter with a negative result from a state-approved COVID-19 test. Domestic travelers who are fully vaccinated may bypass a 10-day quarantine. In Hawaii, all residents and visitors arriving from out of state need to enroll in the Safe Travels screening program. “The problem is the more infectious the virus is, the higher the level of protection needed to reach so-called herd immunity.” It was low enough, effectively, at that point. “It actually would have been a safe benchmark probably for the virus last year. Tim Brown, an infectious disease modeler and senior fellow at the East-West Center. “No, I don’t believe that’s a safe benchmark anymore,” said Dr. That already seemed a lofty goal, but two Hawaii epidemiologists say that target is now not likely high enough to prevent spread of the highly transmissible delta variant.
Given the vaccines have not been approved for children under age 12, the benchmark is really 82% of those eligible for immunization. David Ige has taken flak for insisting that Safe Travels, the nation’s strictest traveler entry program, which is costing the state about $3 million a month, needs to run until at least 70% of Hawaii’s entire population is vaccinated against COVID-19.
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