Hawaii eased its travel restrictions recently, allowing visitors with a recent negative test result to enter without having to quarantine. And for the most part, its been going well with 27,028 visitors arriving in the first week.
For travellers on a recent flight, however, their holiday got off to a less than ideal start.
A passenger on a recent United flight from Chicago boarded with their test result pending. This is allowed under the Hawaii travel restrictions, as the result only has to be shown on arrival at Hawaii.
Once they landed, the passenger found out that their result was positive. They alerted the flight crew and were taken into an isolation area at Honolulu airport.
Other passengers who were seated nearby were also taken into isolation. What a way to start your holiday.
Hawaii News Now spoke to travellers about the event:
“It freaks me out now to kind of think about it that I’m going to be sitting next to a person that’s not sure what their result is and being exposed to it is kind of freaking me out," said Mele Kalama.
“Just the fact that not knowing once you arrive here and then finding out your positive kind of ruins the whole vacation and then puts people at risk," said Chris Ligot who was flying back to LA.
Unfortunately, the nearby passengers who were taken to isolation were not able to be interviewed. They most likely have quite strong feelings about the matter.