The topic of vaccine passports is coming up in conversations all over the United States, but in Hawaii, the discussion isn’t focusing solely on the individuals coming into their state – Gov. David Ige told Hawaii Public Radio that the state is looking at how to include vaccinated adults into the Safe Travels program for travel between the islands without having to quarantine to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“The biggest challenge is trying to validate whether someone has been vaccinated or not,” Ige said. “We are talking about it and looking at how we would implement adults who are vaccinated into the Safe Travels program, both for Inter-island and Trans-Pacific.”
County mayors are not yet ready to allow everyone in – instead, they’re comfortable with opening travel for those vaccinated individuals who travel between islands.
“That might be something we look at first, to see whether we can confirm that someone has been vaccinated and then they would be able to travel inter-island without quarantine," he said.
According to KHON, Lt. Gov Josh Green said on April 12 that inter-island travel could be allowed for residents who are vaccinated in May. It’s possible that trans-Pacific travelers who have been vaccination could see travel open for them in the Safe Travels program in June.
"One of the biggest challenges is that the federal government said that they are not going to be establishing a national vaccination record, that they would be working with private sector businesses and partners to be able to do that," Gov. Ige said.
It’s not an impossible task, although it is a large one. There are two national companies that are working to verify vaccinations – Clear and CommonPass. Hawaii is working with them to bring their verification platform into the state’s Safe Travels program. Those companies are committed to validating vaccine passports in all 50 states, Ige said.
The state is doing quite the job of getting their residents vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, and Ige said Hawai‘i has been in the top 10 states for vaccination rates.
He does caution Hawai’i residents to be patient, because the upcoming federal expansion of vaccine eligibility will mean that demand outpaces the available appointments for vaccination.