Safe Travel tips to Hawai'i using CVS and Walgreens COVID testing to bypass the 10 quarantine
Flying to Honolulu (HNL) International Airport
Hawai’i has a “Safe travels” COVID pretravel testing program. I was able get through the airport quickly and avoided the 10 day quarantine. If you are vaccinated you can bypass the COVID test!
I used both CVS and Walgreens. Scroll to the bottom of the page for instructions.
Lihue, Kauai (LIH) and Kahului, Maui (OGG), Kona (KOA) and Hilo (ITO), Big Island, also implemented the safe travels program. Check out the Hawaii.gov site news releases for the latest information.
UPDATE JULY 8, 2021 Vaccinated Individuals traveling to Hawaii from U.S. and U.S Territories, can upload their vaccination card to Hawaii safe travels and bypass the 72 hour COVID test!
UPDATE JUN 15, 2021. Individuals vaccinated in Hawaii can upload their vaccination cards to avoid the 72 hour pre COVID test for DOMESTIC travel.
Vaccinated individuals (not in Hawaii) can upload their vaccination cards to avoid the 72 hour pre COVID test for travel to Hawaii when 60% of Hawaii population is vaccinated (we are at 54% right now)
At 70% Hawaii vaccinated we are 100% OPEN
Reschedule your flight if your test is not negative or you will quarantine!
COVID test results are needed at BOARDING your final leg to Hawaii. Please read the Safe travel FAQ’s for PREARRIVAL info below. Arriving visitors who CANNOT prove negative test must directly quarantine even if you get results a day later! No exceptions.
As a reminder, Military Service members must check with their local Hawaii commands to get additional guidelines whether or not ROM is required.
For all other visitors this is correct.
Safe Travels application instructions
1) Create an account and watch the video on travel.hawaii.gov (15 min). Enter in your flight info and destination address in Honolulu. You can also add minors to your account.
2) Less than 72 hours prior to Hawaii Arrival time schedule a COVID NAAT PCR RAPID test from a Hawaii State authorized COVID testing facility. Hawaii parters with; AFC Urgent Care, Carbon Health, CityHealth Urgent Care, Color (mail in), CVS Health, Discovery Health MD (Bay Area), Kaiser Permanente, Quest Diagnostics, Vault Health (mail in) and Walgreens. As of Nov 14, 2020 the State has added additional trusted testing partners.
3) You’ll receive an email the day of departure to fill out the travel health form which will generate a QR code#.
4) Log in an Upload your COVID test results to “Documents”. Make sure the date is at the top of your lab results or you will get a “NOT APPROVED DATE OF TRAVEL” notification. If approved the system will immediately respond with “COVID NEGATIVE”.
5) CHARGE YOUR PHONE! When arriving at HNL have your QR code# ready on your phone so they can scan it and bring up your documents for fast approval.
At the airport there were 2 queues. This photo is the longer line for those with a QR code and another without a QR code. This line took about 15-20mins. It could be longer depending on how many flights arrive at the same time. Once at the desk, they asked for my ID and cleared me very quickly. My flight arrival time was 4:00pm and most flights from the East coast arrive around 2:00pm and later.
Honolulu International Airport Safe Travels check station
For CVS COVID tests here are some tips:
1) Find a CVS lab near you (not all CVS facilities offer the COVID test). Hawaii requires a “witnessed” PCR test and the ANTIBODY test is not acceptable.
2) Upload a photo of your insurance card front and back.
3) Drive thru a CVS and do the test. They will witness and possibly send it out to a lab.
5) Then they instruct you by email to set up a MyChart account. You will receive your results as a PDF through MyChart.
6) Upload Your PDF letter results with the date of the test. Make sure you are within 72 hours! I had results in 24 hours in Phoenix and another individual told me they had results in Los Angeles in 30 min.
For Walgreens you need to:
1) Find a WALGREENS COVID test facility (not all Walgreens facilities offer a COVID test). Hawaii requires a “witnessed” PCR test.
2) Make sure to select RAPID DIAGNOSTIC TEST (ID NOW) to get results in 24 hours. You can also select DIAGNOSTIC LAB TEST (PCR) and get results in 48-72 hours (I could only select this one based on the area I was in but I got results in 24 hours)
3) You will receive your results as a PDF. Upload the “LAB PDF” file to the Hawaii Safe Travels web application.
SAFE TRAVELS WEB APPLICATION - UPLOAD COVID test results to” APPLY FOR EXEMPTION/EXCEPTION from quarantine”
All of this is time consuming so planning in advance can make things go smoother when arriving to HNL. I hope this has helped you to have a smoother arrival! Please follow us on FB (Hawaii Military Life) and Instagram (hawaiimilitarylife808) Mahalo for reading 👍
