Hawai‘i took its Safe Travels program to the next level on Tuesday, allowing fully vaccinated state residents to bypass COVID-19 testing and a 10-day quarantine when traveling interisland. This makes the Aloha State second only after New York to launch a digital vaccine certificate program in the United States—though Hawai‘i is the first to apply the vaccine pass system to travel.
On May 7, Hawai‘i Governor David Ige signed an order that gives island residents the option to upload their travel information and vaccination data to the Safe Travels online platform. The order goes into effect on May 11. Since last year, Hawai‘i residents and visitors have been required to provide negative COVID test results procured within 72 hours of departure in order to fly between the Hawai‘ian Islands without having to quarantine.
While the new program is currently only available to state residents vaccinated in Hawai‘i, it is expected to be expanded to out-of-state travelers sometime this summer, according to local news agencies. For now, travelers from the mainland are still required to submit a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than three days prior to flying to Hawai‘i in order to bypass the otherwise mandatory 10-day quarantine.
U.S. citizens are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The move is great news for the 39 percent of Hawai‘i’s population who are now fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins. Fifty-eight percent of the state has received at least one vaccine dose.
Here’s what Hawaii residents need to qualify for the new vaccine passport program:
- A CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card issued in the State of Hawai‘i with resident’s name, birthdate, type of vaccine, date(s) vaccine was administered, and lot number(s)…