Hawai‘i Added to Quarantine List for Travel to NY

Hawaiʻi has been added to the list of locations that must quarantine for 14 days if traveling to New York.  NY Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement on Tuesday saying “we cannot go back to the hell we experienced a few months ago, which is why we are adding Hawaiʻi, South Dakota and Virgin Islands to the travel advisory.”

The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

More than 96% of active cases in Hawaiʻi are on Oʻahu; and 12 of the past 14 days have been in the triple-digits for new COVID-19 cases in the state–the majority of them also on Oahu.

“New York went from one of the worst situations in the country, to an example for the rest of the nation to follow,” said Governor Cuomo in making the announcement. “Our numbers continue to remain low and steady, which shows this virus will respond to an approach based on science, not politics. In order to protect this progress, we must keep up our efforts.”

Meantime, Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington were removed from the NY travel quarantine list.

NY had 120 ICU Patients yesterday, a new low since March 15; and 60 intubations, the lowest number since mid-March. NY also confirmed an additional 667 COVID-19 cases in New York State, brining the statewide total to 422,003.

Hawaiʻi has been reporting triple digit daily increases, with most cases on the island of Oʻahu. Of the 118 new cases yesterday, 112 were on Oʻahu, three were on Maui and one was on Hawaiʻi Island.  There were also two deaths on Oʻahu, but health officials say they will be calculated in today’s COVID-19 totals.