At the end of October of this year, the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawaiʻi (UHERO) released a brief authored by Sumner La Croix (UHERO), Tim Brown (East-West Center), and F. DeWolfe Miller (John A. Burns School of Medicine). The brief seeks to answer four questions:
Will Japanese tourists coming to Hawaii be COVID-19 free after taking a pre-departure PCR test? 2. Are some Japanese tourists likely to be infected in Hawaii and bring COVID-19 back to Japan? 3. Will the combination of a pre-departure test and a quarantine upon return to Japan lead to a substantial resumption of tourism to Hawaii? 4. What are the potential pitfalls and risks from reopening Japanese tourism?
via UHERO
Dr. Tim Brown, an East-West Center researcher, has written previously on the impacts of COVID-19 on Hawaiʻi’s population and economy, including the disproportionate effects seen by the Pacific Islander community.