Coronavirus Diaries is a sequence of dispatches discovering how the coronavirus is affecting people’s life.
Hawaii in February. It sounded excellent, but determining to travel in the middle of a pandemic took me some time. I experienced all sorts of safety concerns. Following a great deal again and forth with my husband, we agreed to meet our daughters in Keauhou on the Significant Island, wherever they had prepared a “Work from Hawaii” getaway. We prepared to get there on the Huge Island a few of times earlier than the ladies, remain for 10 days, and head for a five-working day keep in Oahu, the only island that did not call for a new COVID-19 check for inter-island journey. The logistics of reserving a flight, reserving a townhouse, and obtaining a quick-turnaround COVID-19 check just prior to travel, proved to be not-also-tough.
In the early several hours of a cold morning, a plastic-ensconced Uber driver sped us to the airport to catch our flight. At the airport, we both equally sported a mask and a face shield—I assumed we have to have looked a tad paranoid. On board our to start with flight to San Francisco, we had been thrilled to discover we every single experienced an full row of a few seats to ourselves, all for the rate of financial system tickets. The mask and protect did not trouble us as we stretched across the a few seats and slept. Items were going properly!
We landed and experienced barely an hour in advance of boarding the flight to Kona. Following to our flight gate, I seen prolonged lines and a sign that explained, “Pre-Screening for Hawaii Tourists.” We had already uploaded the final results of our exam and a Hawaii Health Form to the Safe and sound Travels Hawaii website—but just in situation, I requested the flight attendant at our gate whether we essential to do nearly anything a lot more. He shrugged and instructed me that the screening was for other flights and ours would be in Kona.
On the flight to Kona, we when once more each experienced an empty row in overall economy. Business class, in distinction, was crowded. “Cheap thrills!” I texted my friends. Issues received even additional enjoyable as we descended and I observed the contrast in between the azure of the center of the Pacific and the turquoise waters skirting the edges of the Large Island.
We shuffled out of the plane into the mainly open-air airport. The temperature was fantastic, specifically in comparison with cold D.C. We read a screening agent intoning, “have your QR code all set make sure you.” I discovered mine simply in an email that Harmless Travels Hawaii experienced sent me, but my spouse scrolled by his inbox with out achievements. An agent had to assistance log him into his account to retrieve his QR code. Ok, we are very good, we believed. That was right until the agent at the podium called for a supervisor. We seemed at every other, now marginally anxious. “Your COVID-19 exam is not from a Hawaii reliable spouse,” the supervisor advised us.
I experienced been certain our $200 for every man or woman COVID -19 examination results from a highly regarded pharmacy would be recognized, generally for the reason that I hadn’t located another option to meet Hawaii’s screening needs. The state expected that we get examined at a highest of 72 hours prior to boarding and have the final result ready to present on arrival. Nevertheless the Safe Travels Hawaii plan has a long record of accredited companions for COVID-19 exams, they were being largely found on the West Coast, or else did not supply the variety of quick-turnaround test that was required. I experienced even taken screenshots of the sites for CVS, Walgreens, and other important pharmacies to display that in our space, no associate presented test outcomes that would absolutely arrive back inside of that 72-hour window. None of that mattered. (I realized afterwards that in the Northern Virginia place, mail-in tests would have been our finest possibility at the time nevertheless now there is also authorized testing at key airports.)
Then adopted a roundabout exchange with the agent, which I remember going like this:
Agent: Your solutions are to quarantine for 10 times in a condition-accredited lodge or return property.
Me: What? Just can’t we quarantine in the Airbnb we booked?
Agent: No. You will have to e book a hotel and continue to be in your space for 10 days.
Husband: Can we get a exam here or it’s possible go back to San Francisco, choose a further examination there, and appear back again?
Agent: Sir, you can get a exam below, but you need to nevertheless quarantine for 10 times. To prevent quarantine, you really should have a unfavorable COVID-19 examination consequence from a Hawaii partner prior to you board the aircraft to Hawaii. And as for screening in San Francisco, and returning, I can’t inform you if that will operate. The method may perhaps not allow you in as you have been determined for quarantine.
Husband: Can we chat to anyone else to verify about other options?
Agent (visibly irritated): No, sir, your solutions are to quarantine for 10 times in an accepted resort or return residence. You have to have to make your mind up right away.
Frantically, I referred to as the 1-800 quantity for Safe and sound Travels Hawaii, but the lady who took the contact informed me she only dealt with health variety technical concerns. She gave me another cellular phone variety, but the person answering seemed puzzled as to why I was even calling. We checked yet again with the screening brokers. They just needed us to make a decision and go on. Desperate, I begun looking the online for tips. But there was very little on any web page to tutorial us as a result of the ins and outs of pandemic vacation forms. Our trip was simply going to slip absent from us prior to it even began. Following a spherical of back-to-again phone calls to household and United Airlines, we signed the requisite forms stating we were returning to D.C.
There were being a few of upsides to our journey. The flights were good. At Kona Airport, I spotted a new fowl, the crimson-crested cardinal, which is seemingly typical to Hawaii. Our saga jerked our daughters into waking up to Hawaii’s COVID-19 screening realities and compelled them to make sure they experienced check benefits from a Hawaii lover before their vacation.
I desire the agents at Kona Airport experienced recognized a lot more about how to tackle situations like ours. It was disheartening. Thirty-6 several hours soon after we’d left, we returned to a sluggish-moving snowstorm in the Northern Virginia region, texts from friends requesting shots from paradise, and a coming-to-conditions chortle about our misadventure.