![]() ![]() The difference between “infected” and “infectious” is important, said one of the study’s co-authors. The authors of the study said that the 88% figure represents the percentage of contagious people that would be detected on the day of travel, not the overall reduction of risk to a destination population. “And if we’re laboring under the misimpression that (Safe Travels) is preventing 90% of infections, we’re not going to get serious about those protocols.”Īltenberg submitted contributions to the Lancet study last week. “We need to get absolutely serious about our travel protocols,” Altenberg added. ![]() “The public had the wrong impression about how much protection we were getting from the Safe Travels pretest program, and you can’t make good policy if you don’t have accurate information,” Altenberg said. State officials said the study proved their single-test system would catch 88% of all infected travelers. Lee Altenberg, an adjunct full professor in the mathematics department at the University of Hawaii, wrote that the paper “is one of very few studies available to inform policy makers in Hawaii.”īut, he said, the research was mischaracterized as proof that Hawaii’s single-test system was highly effective at preventing spread. But a two-test system coupled with a short quarantine period catches a much higher rate, in excess of 70% of infected travelers, according to the study. Scientists say implementing additional testing measures could help.Ī study published in March in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases showed that the risk to an overall population is reduced by only 36% through a single pre-flight test. Much of that was community spread fueled by the delta variant, which was introduced through travel. Case rates have slowly begun to decline since, but experts say it’s unclear if that will hold. In the first week of September, that number was up to nearly 900. A month later, the state was in the throes of a record surge of delta variant cases that were filling hospitals and leaving more people dead than at any other time in the pandemic.īefore July, Hawaii reported a seven-day average of 46 daily cases. In July, Hawaii lifted its quarantine and testing requirements for vaccinated travelers. And some believe visitors do not see the incentive to test after arrival when facing quarantine away from home.īut when travel numbers increased this summer, so did infection rates. Some of that has been attributed to a severely crippled tourism industry and a lack of participation in leisure travel. ![]() Infection rates increased, but they remained low compared with other states. Then, in October 2020, the state allowed travelers to skip quarantine with a single pre-flight test. After months of mandatory quarantines, business closures and virtually no tourists, Hawaii had among the lowest infection rates in the nation. ![]()
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