Hawaii To Let Boosted Travelers Skip Covid-19 Testing And Quarantine

Around the world, destinations are deliberating what it means for a traveler to be “fully vaccinated” against Covid-19. A growing number of countries — including France, Spain and Israel — have already decided that visitors who have received a booster shot can travel with fewer hassles and hoops to jump through.

Following in their footsteps, the state of Hawaii will soon be updating its travel protocols to include a booster shot, Hawaii Governor David Ige confirmed to Hawaiian news outlet KHON2. The move will allow visitors who have received their third Covid shot to bypass quarantine without needing to present a pre-travel test.

The change will be officially announced “in the next few days,” according to Ige, after which there will be a grace period before the requirement kicks in.

Hawaii Safe Travels Program currently states that travelers who are “up to date” on their vaccinations can bypass a five-day mandatory self-quarantine without a pre-travel test. Essentially, the state will simply be changing the definition of what “fully vaccinated” means to include a booster shot.

As it stands now, travelers to Hawaii must upload a vaccination record document to the Hawaii Safe Travels website, print out a receipt prior to flying to Hawaii, and have a hard copy in hand when arriving in Hawaii. “The State of Hawai‘i will also accept vaccine records that are digitally validated by Digital Health Pass Partners (AZOVA, CLEAR and CommonPass),” says the website. “Travelers who use one of the state’s partners to link their digitally validated vaccine records with Safe Travels may enjoy expedited processing at the airport (no secondary visual inspection of paper vaccine records).”

Since last summer, some of Europe’s most popular destinations have decided that being “fully vaccinated” has an expiry date. Croatia became the first country to set a limit on the validity period for Covid-19 vaccine certificates. American travelers and others from outside the European Union are required to show that their second shot (or first, in the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine) was administered within the last 365 days.

Austria and Switzerland soon followed, and both countries have since shifted the timeline downward, requiring a booster within nine months of the second dose of Moderna or Pfizer or the first dose of Johnson & Johnson.

While France does not require a booster to enter the country, it’s a different story if you want a Pass Vaccinal, which is necessary to dine at restaurants and visit attractions. France currently requires a booster within seven months after receiving the second dose of a two-course vaccine series. But beginning February 15, that time period will shrink to four months after vaccination, according to the U.S. Embassy in France.

Yet another European tourism juggernaut, Spain requires American travelers to have received their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine no more than 270 days, or nine months, before arriving in the country. If more than nine months have passed since the second dose, “U.S. citizens must show proof of having received a booster shot at least 14 days prior to arrival in Spain,” per the U.S. Embassy in Spain.

In October, Israel tightened restrictions for the country’s Covid Green Pass, which is needed to enter indoor venues. Passes for people who have received two vaccine doses or recovered from Covid-19 are now valid for just six months after the date of their completed vaccination or recovery.

In Asia, where many destinations have adopted a very slow-and-careful approach, Vietnam requires that vaccinated travelers must have received their “last dose at least 14 days and not more than one year prior to date of entry,” according to Vietnam’s tourism site.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends getting a booster five months after your last Moderna or Pfizer dose. A whopping 116 countries around the world are at Level 4 on the CDC’s Covid risk map, meaning the agency recommends that Americans “Avoid Travel” to those destinations.