Governor Ige announced on Wednesday June 24th that Hawaii will reopen its doors again on August 1st to visitors who are able to take a pre-test prior to thier arrival. This pre-testing program will allow for travelers to travel to our islands pending a negative test taken 72- hours before arriving. This will allow visitors to bypass the 14 day quarantine currently for arriving passengers. As we begin to thaw out our economy here in Hawaii Governor Ige wants to keep our locals safety as a top priority. Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who is leading the development of the program, recognized that the implementation of the program will be complicated. Details about the pre-testing have not been finalized, but they are working on a partnership with certified testing clinics as well as CVS which has 1,400 stores to allow testing before traveling to the islands. The program resembles a plan implemented by Alaska who has had tremendous success with keeping the number of cases down and from spreading. The idea is to not overwhlem our state and hospitals with requiring to test upon arrival. This is great news for Hawaii as we begin to reopen our economy that relies heavily on tourism and putting around 200,000 people back to work. As we welcome back visitors our state leadership continues to be mindful for the safety of the local communities.