House COVID Committee Pushes Back Against New Quarantine Rule For Hawaii Travelers… A new report from the high-profile committee says the state’s pre-travel test program has been working fine and asks the governor to back off a stricter 14-day quarantine.
A committee of Hawaii political, business and medical leaders is trying to maintain unified support for the state’s Safe Travels program amid persistent opposition from critics, the island of Kauai’s defection from the program and repeated recent changes by Gov. David Ige.
The House Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness invited the state’s mayors and Ige to a special meeting on Monday, days after Kauai announced it was opting out of Hawaii’s program. The mayors showed up, while Ige declined to participate, opting instead to do a live interview on a Facebook show about Hawaii’s response to the pandemic.
Known as the Safe Travels program, Hawaii’s travel protocols are meant to lessen the spread of COVID-19 as Hawaii opens to out-of-state travel. Members of the House committee on Monday emphasized that the program is succeeding: it is letting the state open to more travelers and boosting the economy while keeping COVID-19 cases in check.
