Just a few months ago Hawaii and the rest of the nation watched as New York City struggled as the country’s coronavirus epicenter, its hospitals overwhelmed and its mayor pleading for help.
Times have changed, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Thursday.
In a cruel twist, the state of New York, along with Connecticut and New Jersey, on Tuesday placed Hawaii on its tri-state list of states and territories from which travelers are required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.
The reason: COVID-19 is spikingHawaii. Officials from the tri-state region don’t want people of Hawaii bringing the infection to their area, where the virus is generally now under control.
Hawaii was added to the travel-advisory list along with South Dakota and the Virgin Islands. They join 29 other states where COVID-19 is trending upward.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the other tri-state governors also announced that Alaska, New Mexico, Ohio and Rhode Island were being removed from the list because their cases are trending downward.
The criteria for inclusion on the list is a positive test rate 10 per 100,000 residents on a seven-day rolling average, or 10% of the state’s total population infected on a seven-day rolling average.
New York is requiring air travelers coming from the affected states to fill out a form with their local contact information, allowing contact tracers to ensure the travelers are quarantining. Failure to fill out the form can carry a fine of $2,000.