Hawaii Gov. David Ige has decided that there will be no changes in travel restrictions for those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, at least until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issues guidance, KHON 2 reported.
“At this point, you know, we are waiting for the science,” Ige said. “What we don’t know and what we’re asking the scientists to answer is, if you get vaccinated, can you still carry the virus actively and can you infect someone else?”
The state is working with two companies that will verify vaccinated travelers so that when the CDC does give guidance, the program which will be similar to a health passport, will be ready to roll out.
“They are trying to tie into various databases and ultimately health records if they could, that would allow us to verify that if you said you did receive both doses of vaccinations that we can verify that,” he said. “We do hope that getting vaccinated would mean that it would be easier for people to travel. The fact that we have safe and effective vaccines really is a game changer.”
Limited access to the vaccine and a state budget shortfall are causing issues for the state.
The state has the capacity to administer nearly double the number of vaccinations it is currently administering, but getting the vaccines is the problem. Ige’s government is working with President Joe Biden’s administration to get the state more vaccines.
“We have been getting 30,000 to 40,000 doses a week, and we are clearly prepared to administer 70,000 next week if we could get it,” he said. “The most important thing [the Biden Administration] can do to help with vaccine distribution is give us more lead time and give us more vaccine.”
It could be the end of summer 2021 for 70% of the state’s population to be vaccinated, even if the Biden administration sent Hawaii double the doses they’ve been receiving weekly, because of other issues that the state is dealing with, like the budget shortfall caused by the pandemic.
State furloughs could still happen, because of the size of the budget deficit. Those furloughs were scheduled to start on July 1.