Hawaii’s visitors will soon need to prove they’ve had a COVID-19 booster shot in order to be considered fully vaccinated in the state, the governor said.
The state is preparing to make changes to its “Safe Travels” guidance, which will require visitors to have a booster shot in order to skip a mandatory five-day quarantine.
Gov. David Ige revealed in a livestream with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week that changes to the travel requirements won’t go into effect for at least two weeks.
Currently, out-of-state visitors need to have two doses of the vaccine — or a negative COVID test within 72 hours of travel — to avoid having to isolate for the five days.
The state government hasn’t formally announced the changes and its website that details travel requirements had not been updated as of Tuesday.
The changes are being implemented even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance doesn’t call for people to have a booster to be considered fully vaccinated.
“We know that the community needs time to react to that, so we would have to provide at least two weeks for those who may not be up to date to go to have the opportunity to go and get vaccinated if they need to,” Ige said.
The Democratic governor also said he was speaking to mayors about requiring boosters to eat indoors at restaurants — but the decision would ultimately rest with the local leaders.
It comes as Hawaii battles a spike in cases amid the winter surge fueled by the Omicron variant.
The current seven-day average for new infections in the state is at 3,700 — up from the average 2,500 recorded per day in the first week of January.
As of Tuesday, Hawaii had 75 percent of its population fully vaccinated, including 30.5 percent who had received a booster shot.