Effective February 25, the County of Honolulu (Oahu) moved to Tier 3 of their COVID-19 Reopening Plan. This is one step closer to the most relaxed step, Tier 4. Tier 3, as you can guess allows more activities and operations. A breakdown of some of the changes in Tier 3 are:
People will now be able to go to a restaurant in groups of up to 10 people, regardless of household. In Tier 2, this was a maximum of 5 people. Restaurants can now operate at 100% capacity rather than 50%.
Similar to restaurants, Retail and Service business groupings can have groups of up to 10 people and the capacity limit of 50% is no longer in effect.
Social gatherings can now have up to 10 people.
Real Estate activities such as Open Houses, showing, inspections and appraisals can now allow up to 10 people.
Gyms & fitness facilities will can operate at 50% capacity. This is up from the current 25% capacity.
Commercial recreational boating (fishing tours, dive tours, etc) will be able to operate at 50% capacity
Helicopter tours can have up to 10 people and the capacity limit of 50% will be removed.
One thing that I thought was to be included in Tier 3 but is not, is the reopening of bars and nightclubs. It seems this does not happen until Tier 4.
Rick Blangiardi, the new Mayor of Honolulu pointed out that advancing to Tier 3 “does not mean we can let our guard down”. The wearing of masks in public, social distancing and staying home when feeling sick are all still very important. Should the number of new cases and the positivity rate increase, we could potentially move back down to Tier 2.
Below is an Infographic from the County detailing Tier 3
It’s been a little over two weeks since Hawaii implemented their COVID-19 Pre-travel testing program. It started out a bit rocky with many people having to quarantine after arriving in Hawaii, due to delayed test results. I spoke with one traveler who waited a full ten days to get his test results. He then had to wait two more days after uploading the results to Hawaii’s website to get his official Quarantine Release.
With all this in mind, below are a few tips I found in the Honolulu Star Advertiser that may help speed you through the process.
