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Lawmakers urge Ige to initiate outer island pretesting program

Oahu could be brought into fold once virus cases there subside

By Colleen Uechi 4 min read

State lawmakers are calling for a pretesting pilot program that would allow exclusive travel between Neighbor Island counties.

Members of the state Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 sent a letter to Gov. David Ige asking him to launch the program for Neighbor Islands, saying that it could serve as a testing ground for a future trans-Pacific travel program that's been delayed until at least Sept. 30.

"I did have a discussion with the mayors last Friday and there is interest from the Neighbor Islands, so we'll be exploring it," Ige said during a news conference Tuesday on Oahu. "I'll be meeting with the mayors again and we'll see which counties are interested in participating and then we'll take it from there."

Mayor Michael Victorino also said talks were ongoing and urged caution despite the relatively low cases on Neighbor Islands.

"Cases do appear to be leveling off in Maui County, but we still need to keep an eye on Oahu and Hawaii County," he told The Maui News on Tuesday afternoon. "High case numbers anywhere in our state impacts all of us and our collective recovery efforts. "

Hawaii has been under a partial interisland travel quarantine since mid-August that requires anyone arriving on the Neighbor Islands to isolate for 14 days.

Special committee members said in a letter to Ige on Thursday that the Neighbor Island counties could serve as "ideal pilot program testing sites" and that once cases subside on Oahu, "interisland travel to Honolulu could also be added to provide a high-volume testing opportunity."

Back in June, the state Department of Health recommended a number of steps that would reduce the risk of traveler infection, including confirmation of a negative test within 72 hours of travel, health questionnaires, screenings on departure and arrival, social distancing and masks and an optional location tracing app.

Using these steps and existing protocols, the state "could form the basis of an effective quarantine waiver program," the committee said. Federal Aviation Administration clearance or a reciprocal predeparture agreement between destinations would also likely be needed for a pilot program.

"The results yielded by the pilot program could provide valuable information that could be applied to an eventual trans-Pacific pretest or bubble program, which would be a critical element to successfully reopening Hawaii's economy," the committee said.

Like Victorino, Senate Majority Leader Kalani English was also cautious about the low case counts on Neighbor Islands, pointing as an example to Hawaii island, which had the third lowest cases among the counties until a recent outbreak propelled it past Maui.

"We really have to be cognizant that everything can change in a minute," English said.

The lawmaker said that on one hand, he was satisfied with how strict the interisland quarantine has been. But on the other hand, it's been difficult for some of his constituents to travel. English recently spoke with some firefighters on Molokai who weren't able to get a travel exemption to work shifts on Maui.

English said that some details will need to be worked out before any type of Neighbor Island pilot program can be deployed, including the availability of tests and the ability to get results within a 72-hour time frame.

"It's good that the COVID committee is bringing this up and wanting to have discussions with the mayors and the counties on this," he said. "I think that it's worth exploring."

Sen. Roz Baker, who represents West and South Maui and chairs the Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee, said that ultimately the decision would be up to the governor and the mayors.

"I think the mayors were pretty clear, at least the mayors of the Neighbor Island counties, that they still wanted a quarantine," she said.

She added that "until we get that rapid test, I think we're probably going to continue to need some form of quarantine depending on where people are coming from and their health when they arrive."

Ige said Tuesday that his administration is still moving toward the launch of its trans-Pacific pretravel testing program. He said they've been working on contracts with private partners such as CVS and other pharmacies who could conduct the tests out of state within three days of travelers' departure. They've also been working to update the digital platform for the pretravel testing program.

"All of the activities that we need to have in place to enable pretravel testing are moving ahead full steam, because we do know that bringing back our visitors from around the Pacific is fundamentally important to restarting and encouraging our economy."

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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