(BIVN) – During a Thursday news conference, Lieutenant Governor Josh Green gave an update on the Safe Travels Hawai‘i program, which has been gathering surveillance testing data on incoming arrivals to Hawaiʻi since October 19, 2020.

The new conference was held to announce an adjustment to the pre-arrival testing program that will allow arrivals to bypass the 14-day mandatory quarantine with a negative test result.

Lt. Gov. Green says, to date:

• 273,020 passengers have been screened (including inter-island, Japan, and trans-pacific travelers).
• 243,140 exemptions from quarantine given (negative test from a trusted travel partner, or state exemption).
• 7,217 passengers in quarantine (non-trusted travel partner or incorrect type of test).
• 186,969 arriving visitors.
• 86,051 arriving residents.

Lt. Governor Green noted that after one month of surveillance testing, there were only 27 positive cases out of 17,720 post-travel tests administered.

“Right now we are not seeing COVID-19 spread due to travelers,” Lt. Governor Green said, “but we are continuing to monitor the situation, especially as we see cases rise on the mainland. This is why I am supportive of our teams move to require test results before people depart for Hawai‘i. This will help mitigate any issues with travelers having pending test results and arriving positive.”

On Wednesday, a total of 8,879 people arrived in Hawai‘i from out of state, according to reporting by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority. “A total of 4,527 people indicated they came to Hawai‘i for vacation,” the HTA noted. “There were also 1,192 returning residents. The trans-pacific passenger arrival data is derived from data provided by the Safe Travels digital system.”