Hawaii’s COVID-19 restrictions are gone, with the remaining rules lifted starting March 26, 2022.
The state’s Safe Travels program and its indoor mask mandate expired March 25, with indoor masking now optional at stores, movie theaters, gyms and many public places.
Masks are still required indoors at public schools and hospitals throughout the state, and on public transit, including commercial planes and buses.
Individual stores and places of business can also still establish their own rules regarding masks.
Domestic travelers arriving at state airports on or after March 26 no longer need to register with Safe Travels or show proof of vaccinations or negative test results. The mandatory five-day quarantine is also no longer required.
Travelers arriving in Hawaii directly from international airports must still comply with United States federal requirements. Individual airlines will provide information on requirements for travel.
“It’s the right time based on the science, because we have so few people in the hospital and so few people sick,” Hawaii Lt. Governor Josh Green said. “We’ll continue to follow the science with the CDC if there’s a surge of a subvariant or another concern. But following the science has worked for us. It’s ending what it needed to end.”
Hawaii’s COVID-19 restrictions were among the strictest in the country. Safe Travels program begin in October of 2020, and included a testing and registration program that allowed incoming travelers to bypass the state’s then-14-day mandatory quarantine, provided the individual produced a negative COVID-19 test result from an approved testing partner.
Green credited the program with keeping Hawaii’s infection and case counts low throughout the pandemic.
“I’m convinced that’s one of the reasons we have the lowest infection rate in the country and the second-lowest death rate, and it made it possible for our economy to recover, too,” he said.
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