Maui to limit indoor dining, cut tour sizes
Snagging cafe reservations and bookings for well-liked vacationer activities has been a battle for visitors to Maui this summer and it’s about to get more tricky as Hawaii grapples with a COVID surge it mainly escaped till the previous many months.
Beginning Sept. 15, prospects who want to dine inside of at places to eat and bars should show evidence they are entirely vaccinated. Those who aren’t vaccinated will only be allowed to dine exterior, in which relevant, or get takeout. Little ones more youthful than age 12 are exempt.
Bars and dining places should also shut by 10 p.m. starting next week.
Many vacationer routines will also see cuts in potential. Group measurements on tours, snorkeling excursions, fishing expeditions, sunset sails and other excursions, as well as ground transportation vendors, will be limited to 50%, down from the present ability limit of 75%, to advertise social distancing.
The new constraints, which will be in location for at minimum 30 days, ended up introduced late Tuesday by Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino and other government officers.
“If the (COVID case) numbers don’t appear down over the following 30 days, we may possibly have to apply stricter policies and stricter mandates,” he claimed.
Maui’s new procedures come a 7 days immediately after Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced strict new procedures for restaurants, bars, museums and other institutions. Beginning Sept. 13 in Honolulu, prospects will have to display vaccine proof or a adverse COVID take a look at to enter the institutions. Takeout is excluded.
Victorino reported Maui decided not to supply a unfavorable COVID test selection for diners and bar patrons due to the fact most persons generally you should not system their evenings out close to a COVID examination.
Hawaii has previously claimed extra than two times as quite a few coronavirus conditions this 12 months as it did in all of 2020, Johns Hopkins College data shows.
In accordance to the details, Hawaii experienced been reporting 66,778 COVID-19 cases by means of Saturday afternoon. It experienced reported 22,007 situations in all of 2020.
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The annual comparisons don’t get started to inform how considerably Hawaii struggled with a wave of cases pushed by the delta variant. In just the final thirty day period, Hawaii has reported far more cases than it did in all of final 12 months.
In late August, Hawaii Gov. David Ige issued a plea for visitors to continue to be away from the islands by means of Oct thanks to the problems from the delta variant.
Victorino stated Tuesday that tourist quantities have currently fallen sharply considering that the announcement, although some of the declines are seasonal.
“Our figures have dropped off greatly,” Victorino mentioned. “They’re (travellers) not coming.”
Hawaiian Airways mentioned in an trader filing Tuesday that bookings have taken a strike and cancellations have elevated owing to the increase in COVID cases and the governor’s responses “that it was not a very good time to stop by Hawaii.” As a final result, it lowered its income forecast for the quarter that finishes Sept. 30.
Contributing: Mike Stucka