Hawaii COVID Testing

[montreid]

UCalifornia health systems are finalizing details to get as trusted partners. That'll help Cali residents.

 

[Paul Stupin]

UCalifornia health systems are finalizing details to get as trusted partners. That'll help Cali residents.

That would be great!

 

[BlueRibbon]

Finally getting around to posting a follow-up. Good news is that we arrived at Aulani today!!

Lessons Learned:
1. Slightly annoyed that the PDF that Vault sends you does not have the time your sample was collected, just the date. If Hawaii wanted to be sticklers, they could say that your proof requires date and time, however the Safe Travels site accepted the PDF and marked the kids I uploaded them for as "COVID Negative."

2. If you are in CA and have kids 12 through 17 traveling with you, DO NOT use Kaiser. We found out that KP will not post test results online for teens and even the teens can't see their results. When DW called them up to see what could be done to get the result, they replied, "you can drop by and we'll give you a print out. I have 3 teens who were in this category. Thankfully we also had the Vault test, and those 3 kids had Vault results uploaded.

3. Another thing about KP. Between Tuesday and Wednesday they changed the text on their PDF results which put the date and time the sample was collected on the 2nd page. My results from KP came back on Tuesday, so following the instructions, I saved off the first page, uploaded to safe travels and got "COVID Negative" which means the automated check passed. On Wednesday morning, my wife's Aunts results came in and she followed my instructions. The safe travels site however, got stuck on "pending verification" which we knew would not be good coming into Oahu. After researching for a couple of hours we decided to save off the whole PDF(2 pages) and upload it whole. Good thing we did because it worked!! So don't pay attention to when they say "Only upload the first page"

When we arrived at HNL I was shocked at the number of people who didn't follow the rules. A guy didn't set up his own safe travels because his wife did it and put him as a travel companion and uploaded the results for both. "Whats wrong?" The guy kept asking. Another guy got a test from a non trusted provider, and was also wondering what the big deal was. Since I had my kids with me I couldn't pay attention too much to what happened with those folks.

One last thing: If you're renting a car, after getting out from the terminal, log out of safe travels and log back in. The rental car companies need to see that your exempt from quarantine, and it'll only say you're exempt if you reload it by logging out and logging back in.

Sorry for the long post, but I'll admit, getting all these tests and checking all the boxes for the state has been a drain!!

 

[carole88]

Thank you everyone for all of your information. We are going to Hawaii on Saturday, Nov. 14. There are 3 of us going. My DH and I live in Las Vegas and my DD lives in Irvine, CA. Being that we live in different areas we decided to go with Vault Health. We all took our tests on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Due to a meeting my DH had that morning we had to do them independently. Both of our supervisors were very nice and walked us through the procedure. I brought his and mine to UPS around 9:30 am as did my DD in Irvine. I received an email this morning saying that the test had been received at the lab in NJ. Thankfully we received this email as I had forgotten to record the UPS tracking number. The email said that we would receive our results in 24 to 72 hours. This made me a little nervous but we decided to just remain positive. At 9:21 this evening I received an email that our results were negative!!! I am very happy with this company and would recommend it to anyone going to Hawaii1

 

[nono]

Why would UPS want to hold on to the kits? It seems crazy!

I wonder if they are considering them infectious disease or medical waste? I found this at UPS site. Perhaps Vault needs to get with their UPS account manager/customer service quickly to see if anything they are doing with packaging needs a tweak to grease the skids. This is a serious time-is-of-the-essence situation for sure.

 

[StayAwake]

Not sure if anyone else had this happen with Vault, but we ordered our kits and UPS is holding them for observation. They wont tell us when they will be delivered, or if they will even be delivered at all. Trying to figure out other testing options in Southern California with two kids. We will try and schedule Walgreens, but keeping out fingers crossed they will still have tests by the time our appointment rolls around. We are hearing that some locations are running out.

I just ordered my vault test on Wednesday the 11th and it was just delivered today, Friday the 13th. It did have a plain white sleeve covering the box, which when I removed it had a sticker on the box that said Biological Substance Category B. Wondering if perhaps your test were missing this sleeve, and that's what triggered UPS to be suspicious?

Hope it all works out for you!

 

[DRussell83]

Thank you everyone for all of your information. We are going to Hawaii on Saturday, Nov. 14. There are 3 of us going. My DH and I live in Las Vegas and my DD lives in Irvine, CA. Being that we live in different areas we decided to go with Vault Health. We all took our tests on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Due to a meeting my DH had that morning we had to do them independently. Both of our supervisors were very nice and walked us through the procedure. I brought his and mine to UPS around 9:30 am as did my DD in Irvine. I received an email this morning saying that the test had been received at the lab in NJ. Thankfully we received this email as I had forgotten to record the UPS tracking number. The email said that we would receive our results in 24 to 72 hours. This made me a little nervous but we decided to just remain positive. At 9:21 this evening I received an email that our results were negative!!! I am very happy with this company and would recommend it to anyone going to Hawaii1

Appreciate your report! just ordered ours - shipped this morning - we take the test 11/21 for our 11/24 flight! we are in Costa Mesa CA - so very close to your daughter!

 

[Jjjustin80]

I just ordered my vault test on Wednesday the 11th and it was just delivered today, Friday the 13th. It did have a plain white sleeve covering the box, which when I removed it had a sticker on the box that said Biological Substance Category B. Wondering if perhaps your test were missing this sleeve, and that's what triggered UPS to be suspicious?

Hope it all works out for you!

Vault spoke with UPS and figured it out - they dont know why the packages were under "observation." So kudos to Vault for being all over the shipping issues. Since we have four tests, do you think we should ship back in the same envelope or four separate envelopes? We would hate to have 1 get lost in transit.

 

[DisWitt]

I do not envy the "secondary screening" workers at HNL who have to tell people they're quarantining or getting on a flight home immediately. That would suck. The crying and yelling has to be insane. I bet LOADS of people haven't done the process correctly or gone to a Hawaii-approved lab. Our local same-day covid lab is touting that their test is "approved for travel". But they're not on the Hawaii list. Then, you have the limitations on "over-18 only" for some labs (Quest) and "over-12 only" for others... such a mine field. And it doesn't help that the governor could shut it all down tomorrow without notice!

 

[Stormtrooper mum]

Hey all, with the Vault do you pay in advance or when you send in the kit and do the kits expire at all?

 

[clansac]

Just got a puzzling email from City health about Oakland airport testing. We had tests booked for Dec 12th (day before our flight) but they are saying we need to rebook and can't do the rapid test, with very little other info. Anyone else know what's up?

 

[Paul Stupin]

Hey all, with the Vault do you pay in advance or when you send in the kit and do the kits expire at all?

You pay when you order. A previous poster clarified the kits have a two year shelf life.

 

[neurosx1983]

It strikes me that right now things are looking very similar to the way they did in March/April in terms of COVID cases/deaths. In NJ our numbers are literally like they were in April now. I was one of those whose March ABD was cancelled and now I have planned a trip to Hawaii next month at Christmas.

Are others out there worried, like our ABD trip in March, that cases will surge so much that HI will go to lock down again? My bigger fear is that HI will lock down while we are there. Lots of unknowns…

 

[StayAwake]

It strikes me that right now things are looking very similar to the way they did in March/April in terms of COVID cases/deaths. In NJ our numbers are literally like they were in April now. I was one of those whose March ABD was cancelled and now I have planned a trip to Hawaii next month at Christmas.

Are others out there worried, like our ABD trip in March, that cases will surge so much that HI will go to lock down again? My bigger fear is that HI will lock down while we are there. Lots of unknowns…

Yes, I'm nervous as well. I've been watching this site each week to see how things are going on Oahu and so far they're not increasing like places in the mainland are. Oahu Reopening Strategy

 

[Melanie M]

Just got a puzzling email from City health about Oakland airport testing. We had tests booked for Dec 12th (day before our flight) but they are saying we need to rebook and can't do the rapid test, with very little other info. Anyone else know what's up?

I got the same email and am concerned. We have appointments on November 19th for our departure November 20th. Do you have any updated info? There are five of us in our family and only one of us received the email.

 

[clansac]

I got the same email and am concerned. We have appointments on November 19th for our departure November 20th. Do you have any updated info? There are five of us in our family and only one of us received the email.

Three of the five of us received the email. We're in Sacramento, not Oakland and planned to fly from OAK for the rapid testing in particular. Now, we're trying to sort out if we're supposed to go down 3 days before, get tested then come home, then go back? It's all very convoluted. The CityHealth info says the Hawaii standards are changing, but the Safe Hawaii page doesn't have any new info- so I'm confused! We're not traveling till December, so we have time, but hopefully you can sort it out very quickly!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We are scheduled for Nov 20 rapid tests at Oakland so keep me posted. No emails for any of us.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I just found this: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...-oakland-international-airport-301173070.html

But I'm still confused why none of us have received an email. We booked ours a long time ago (probably a month?). When did you guys @clansac @Melanie M book?

 

[braysmommy]

It strikes me that right now things are looking very similar to the way they did in March/April in terms of COVID cases/deaths. In NJ our numbers are literally like they were in April now. I was one of those whose March ABD was cancelled and now I have planned a trip to Hawaii next month at Christmas.

Are others out there worried, like our ABD trip in March, that cases will surge so much that HI will go to lock down again? My bigger fear is that HI will lock down while we are there. Lots of unknowns…

I live in MA so Hawaii is one of the few states we could travel to and not have to quarantine when we get back but have decided not to travel due to all the unknown. We were going to fly direct from EWR do minimize risk in airports but with rates increasing and a lot still closed we have decided to wait it out. Of course ask me again in a month when winter really hits New England!

 

[neurosx1983]

I live in MA so Hawaii is one of the few states we could travel to and not have to quarantine when we get back but have decided not to travel due to all the unknown. We were going to fly direct from EWR do minimize risk in airports but with rates increasing and a lot still closed we have decided to wait it out. Of course ask me again in a month when winter really hits New England!

I feel your pain! From NJ, the only two states basically not on the quarantine list are HI and VT...

I’m still hopeful it will work out for us to be watching the Kona sunset in about a month !