Gov. David Ige details international travel requirements to Hawaii

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Gov. David Ige held a news conference on Tuesday to detail international travel rules as part of the state’s Safe Travels program, which has been in effect since Oct. 15, 2020 and continues to evolve.

Effective Nov. 8, international travelers may visit Hawaii under new federal rules. Non-U.S. citizens traveling directly to the islands from another country must show both vaccination records and a negative COVID test results (NAAT or antigen) within three days of boarding a flight to the U.S.

U.S. citizens flying directly to Hawaii from an international destination have two options:

• Fully vaccinated travelers must provide proof of vaccination and present a test taken within three (3) days of boarding flight to U.S.; OR
• Travelers not fully vaccinated must provide proof of negative COVID-19 test result within one (1) day of boarding flight to U.S.

Under the new requirements, tests do not have to be done with Trusted Travel Partners, however, they must be done for unvaccinated domestic travel. International travelers entering the U.S. from another state or territory will be treated as domestic travelers when entering Hawaii, beginning Nov. 8.

In order to help with contact tracing, airlines will be required to collect passengers’ contact information regardless of whether they have been vaccinated.

The governor’s news conference follows the recent changes to federal international COVID-19 travel requirements that were announced last week.

The new policy comes as the Biden administration moves away from restrictions that ban non-essential travel from several dozen countries — most of Europe, China, Brazil, South Africa, India and Iran.