I mean, they’re from Dorchestah
They coulda just elbowed their way in there or got their uncle Vinnie to help them “get clearance”
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All five had tested negative for COVID-19 days earlier at the same facility. All five had downloaded the state of Hawaii’s “Travel Safe” app on their phones. All five had uploaded to the app their travel itineraries, test results, and answers to a medical questionnaire. And all five had received QR codes from Travel Safe upon completing all the steps.
But a Hawaiian Airlines manager found something amiss.
Peering into a computer screen at check-in, he said two of them — birthday girl Kerri and the third sister, Kim Flaherty — had red X’s next to their names. The others had green check marks.
The Hawaiian Airlines manager issued wristbands to Kelli and the two friends, which would allow them through the COVID-19 checkpoint at the airport in Honolulu, but not to the others.
The McLaughlin group knew anyone without proof of a negative COVID test would be required to quarantine for 10 days, which of course would ruin their vacation. But that hardly seemed a possibility, not according to what the airline manager was saying.
But paradise turned into a nightmare. Kerri and Kim — the ones with red X’s next to their names and no wristbands — were denied entry when Travel Safe agents working for the state of Hawaii said they could not verify their negative test status. They would have to quarantine or go home.
Kerri said she tried to explain. But the agents didn’t seem interested. For hours, Kerri called everyone she could think of for help, including the governor’s office back in Massachusetts. But to no avail.
Tears were abundant as Kerri and Kim boarded a flight home, their combined $1,600 in airfare wasted. (The other three stayed, but said they were miserable.)
How did this happen?
All five women had been vaccinated weeks earlier. But that didn’t matter. What the state of Hawaii wanted was proof of a negative COVID-19 test. (Hawaii is the only state still requiring a test for travelers, but on July 8, the rules will change to allow domestic travelers to enter Hawaii with proof of vaccination.)
All five had gone to a testing site run by Project Beacon at Suffolk Downs. There was nothing wrong with that site, or the Broad Institute, which was the lab used to process the tests. The problem they faced was bureaucratic. The tests could not be verified because Project Beacon was not one of the dozens of testing sites Travel Safe had approved as “trusted partners.” The state of Hawaii said Project Beacon did not apply to be a partner.
Kelli says she overlooked that detail, focusing instead on the costs of tests at available sites around Boston. The Project Beacon tests were free, while other testing sites charged as much as $160 each ($800 for all five).
It was a mistake. “Believe me, I’ve been kicking myself over that ever since,” Kelli said.
But that doesn’t explain everything or exonerate Hawaiian Airlines or the state of Hawaii. For one thing, why did the system put in place by the state catch the flaw in Kerri’s and Kim’s uploaded documents, but not in the other three? All five were tested at the same site.
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Thank you for taking the time to c/p this for me. SO sad for that family.
interesting! On the Safe HI travel site it only states a certain test and not ‘places’ to test. They have 3 travel partners that can verify data.
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I don’t know about others from MA but Project Beacon is the provider we use in my schools. It is the company that gives me my PCR results in 24 hours or less.
We have definitely utilized Project Beach a lot too! Definitely almost always the fastest results.
Hopefully they have changed it since this incident happened! Maybe for exactly this reason.
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Thanks for the update.
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