Proposal To Scrap Kauai’s Two-Test Protocol For Arriving Travelers Advances…Measure introduced by House Speaker Scott Saiki would prevent Kauai from requiring the extra test.
Kauai County’s requirement that tourists be tested for COVID-19 for a second time before they are free to roam the Garden Island would be preempted under a bill that won preliminary approval from two House committees on Tuesday.
House Bill 1286 was introduced by House Speaker Scott Saiki, and is backed by hoteliers and other players in the tourism industry. They say Hawaii’s patchwork of testing and quarantine protocols is confusing for would-be tourists, and is discouraging people from coming here.
But critics of Saiki’s bill said forcing Kauai to relax the extra testing requirement is a terrible idea at a time when the state is threatened by new variants of the coronavirus. Nearly 150 Kauai residents and others submitted testimony opposing the measure.
