Visitors to Maui: Attention
Hawaii State Department of Health Maui District Health Office Recommendations The following are safety guidelines recommended to all travelers arriving into Maui County: Before booking your lodging, ensure that location will accommodate you should you require quarantine or isolation if you become suspected of being contagious, awaiting test results for, or needing to be isolated as a positive case of COVID 19. Maui has limited quarantine locations to place sick or suspected sick nonresidents. Before booking your rental car, check the agency policy on refunds should you be unable to utilize your rental due to illness or suspected illness. Quarantine and isolation last up to 14 days, during which time you will prohibited from leaving your hotel room or other place of lodging except to obtain medical care. Check the refund policy for activities, tours, lodging and other arrangements that may need to be changed or canceled in the event of illness. Be aware that some third-party booking agencies and companies have a no- refund policy. If you are suspected or confirmed to be ill with the COVID19 virus you will be required to quarantine and isolate for up to 14 days. You will be unable to leave your place of lodging except to access urgent medical care. It is recommended that you obtain travel insurance, including policies that cover COVID related issues, that may assist in your ability to change the date or circumstances of your travel plans should you need to quarantine or isolate in place, as well as assist you if you need to be transported out of Maui or Hawaii for medical or other reasons. It is recommended that you obtain and carry proof of medical insurance, and that it is applicable to healthcare needs in Maui. Maui County has 1 acute care hospital: Maui Memorial Medical Center is a 219-bed not-for-profit organization, whose website states: Maui Memorial Medical Center will bill your health plan carrier(s) according to the information provided at registration. You'll be asked to present your current health plan coverage cards and to pay all co-pays, deductibles, coinsurance and fees for noncovered services when registering and checking in for services. Please check your health plan to determine if a provider is participating. If your plan's requirements are not followed, you may be financially responsible for all or part of the services rendered in the hospital. Be prepared for delays at points of entry into Hawaii. All travelers will undergo a screening which may include: temperature check, detailed survey form completion, interviews, nasal swab test, detainment and xxxx If you are suspected of being ill you will be referred to the Department of Health for further investigation. You will not be allowed to fly: You are on the Known Quarantine List; You have symptoms including but not limited to: xxxx Helpful and recommended websites for Hawaii’s travelers and situational awareness in Maui County: https://hidot.hawaii.gov/coronavirus/ https://www.mauicounty.gov/2370/COVID-19-Coronavirus-Information Continue to prevent the transmission of disease by adhering to CDC recommended disease prevention guidelines: wear a face covering over your nose and mouth, keep distance of at least 6 feet from others whenever possible, cover your mouth and nose when you cough and sneeze, wash your hands frequently and do not travel when you feel sick. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-in-the-us.html Information, guidelines and recommendations are subject to change. Respect our culture and our desire to re-open our islands in a manner that we feel is safe for our residents and visitors. ~ Mahalo ~
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From: Office of the Governor
Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2020 9:09 PM To: Joe Pluta Subject: From the Office of Governor David Y. Ige [CS25614] EXECUTIVE CHAMBERS HONOLULU David Y. Ige GOVERNOR June 3, 2020 Mr. Joseph Pluta PO Box 12278 181 Lahainaluna Road Suite I Lahaina, HI 96761 Dear Mr. Pluta: Thank you for contacting our office on June 1, 2020 to express your views and suggestions regarding tourism and the quarantine during COVID-19. Our staff will ensure that your comments are shared with Governor Ige. The global spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 is very concerning to the Governor. This is a rapidly changing situation, and the Governor continues to work with county, state and federal partners to gather information and make decisions to protect the health of Hawaiʻi's residents. In efforts to support ongoing State and County responses to COVID-19, the Governor has issued several emergency proclamations which can be reviewed at https://governor.hawaii.gov/category/newsroom/emergency-proclamations/. The Governor's Eighth Supplemental Proclamation relates to persons traveling to the State or traveling inter-island. Visitors and returning or intended residents are subject to a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine with a few exceptions detailed in the proclamation orders. Additionally, the Department of Transportation provides FAQs about travel/quarantine at https://hidot.hawaii.gov/coronavirus/. The disaster emergency relief period shall continue through June 30, 2020, unless terminated or extended by a separate proclamation, whichever shall occur first. At this point in time, it is not possible to verify or confirm the date that any travel restrictions and quarantine requirements will be modified and/or rescinded. On June 1, 2020, Governor David Ige announced that the state will be lifting the 14-day quarantine requirement for inter-island travelers, effective June 16. The state Department of Transportation will require thermal screening at the airport for everyone traveling inter-island. HDOT will also require travelers to fill out a new form that will now also ask for health-related information to assist the state in tracking and responding to new COVID-19 cases. Hawaiʻi is slowly reopening within public health guidelines and safe practices. The Governor's emergency proclamation allows a county maximum flexibility to exercise its respective emergency management authority. This allows for flexibility between counties since COVID-19 infection rates and recovery on each island differ. Please know that county proclamations and orders may be more restrictive or more lenient. You should consult with county authorities about their requirements and restrictions:
With warmest regards, Office of the Governor State of Hawaiʻi Federal COVID Money
By Tom Yamachika, President This week our Legislature will be recessing after working on one of its important tasks: figuring out how to spend $1 billion of federal money that is being made available to Hawaii under the CARES Act. This federal money is being made available for expenditures that are (1) necessary and incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, (2) not budgeted for as of March 27, 2020, and (3) incurred before December 31, 2020. Senate Bill 75, House Draft 1, gave the Neighbor Islands a share of that money because only Honolulu received a direct allocation of federal funds; gave a few state agencies some money for state COVID response; and then squirreled away the balance, about $636 million, into the emergency and budget reserve fund (also known as the “rainy-day fund”). Why was it put there? According to Senator Thielen’s article in Civil Beat, it was put there so the governor couldn’t touch it. Apparently, the plan is for the Legislature to recess until mid-June, come back into session, and then appropriate the balance of the money so it can be spent by the end of the year. Senate Bill 75 requires that the money to go a new, separate account within the rainy-day fund, which perhaps would make it easier to say that expenditures out of this account came from the COVID-19 money rather than the $395 million that is already in the fund. Some have pointed out that the rainy-day fund statute, HRS section 328L-3, not only prevents the money from being spent by the Executive Branch without a legislative appropriation, but also prevents the Legislature from appropriating more than 50% of the total balance of the fund in a fiscal year. True; if that statute is left alone, it would prevent the Legislature from using all the federal money, which would result in forfeiture of some of the federal funds that have been set aside for Hawaii. Thus, the Legislature’s plan must be to also amend the rainy-day fund statute in some way to allow the appropriation. Can they do this? Sure, if the Governor is willing to sign the resulting appropriation bill. But remember that the Governor doesn’t have to play by the rules either. We have seen that he isn’t shy about using his emergency powers to suspend laws. His most recent Eighth Supplementary Proclamation has a list of suspended laws that is 20 pages long, and we have already written about how this Governor has suspended a law that affected distribution of tax revenues to take control of moneys that the Legislature had earmarked for the counties. If push came to shove, he could easily suspend the rainy day fund statute and take control of that money as well, relying, perhaps, on HRS section 26-8 which gives the Department of Budget and Finance custody of all state funds. What all of this means is that the Governor, the Legislature, or both could get into a big, messy argument on how to best use the billion dollars that our federal government has graciously provided. We need to remember that if we don’t reach agreement on how to use this money, and then actually use it, by the end of this calendar year that the money will return to (or stay in) the United States Treasury. We can park the money in the rainy-day fund as a short-term solution, but we don’t have time to argue about it! We need both parties to come to the table, come to some agreements and understandings on how best to use this money toward helping the general welfare of this State, and then do it before time runs out. |
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