Current reopening plan guarantees virus surge

The current reopening plan potentially mixing those tested with those not tested is utterly stupid.

This plan guarantees an extremely high probability of a coronavirus surge followed by more business restrictions.

The correct, bare minimum plan is to mandate a test three days before the flight and a test after people arrive here. Countries like South Korea that are successfully managing the virus have even stricter procedures in place.

If the state is unwilling to test passengers at the airport, then let the hotels set up testing for tourists at check-in similar to what airlines are doing. Residents and nonhotel tourists would have 24 hours to get a test from a drive-thru facility or other mass testing location set up by a state-contracted entity; possibly using the same contract now in place for “acceptable” preflight testing. All tests would be paid for by the individual receiving the test, and everyone must quarantine until receiving a negative result.

Passenger information must be collected as it currently is for both contact tracing and test compliance enforcement. Individuals submit their arrival test results to receive quarantine clearance.

Doing less than this (like the current plan) is simply a waste of time, money and effort on nothing more than a “feel good” program. You might as well just throw open the doors and wish everyone good luck like Florida is doing.

Kevin Bridges

Kahului