For some, aloha means goodbye
Posted on Apr 30, 2020 in Capitol Connection, Featured
The state’s airports are ramping up enhanced screening and enforcement of travelers. Upon landing in Hawaii passengers are having their temperature taken, their contact information and reservations are verified, and they must sign a document acknowledging they understand it is a criminal offense if they disobey the mandatory 14 day self-quarantine order.
Stepped up visitor contact checks, statewide enforcement, and sending violators back where they came from are among the latest efforts to ensure people are taking the governor’s COVID-19 quarantine mandate seriously. Overall passenger arrivals have declined by 98 percent, compared to when 30,000 passengers were arriving daily in Hawai‘i.
Arriving pasengers on trans-Pacific flights will have their temperature taken. Anyone with a high temperature will receive a medical assessment by paramedics at the airport. After verifying the required forms, officials will call the cell phones in the presence of the visitors to verify the numbers, double-check local addresses and increase follow-up calls and hotel coordination to catch violators.
Sanitizers and other measures are part of the Age of COVID-19.
To date, the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawai‘i (VASH) has helped to return home nearly 20 visitors who weren’t prepared to follow the 14-day quarantine, using a Hawai‘i Tourism Authority COVID-19 program.