Getting a COVID-19 Test to Travel Inter-Island

I needed to travel to Hilo for work.  And in order to do that, I had to take a COVID-19 test.  Even though I rarely leave my house, I made sure to stay home for 2 weeks prior to having to leave, since I didn’t want to risk getting exposed.

I made an appointment with one of the Trusted Travel Partners (Urgent Care Hawaii).  I had to wait a while (in the car) before a medical personnel took a nasal sample, which made my anxiety worse because I was thinking it would hurt...

But it wasn’t bad at all.  Literally just a few seconds of swabbing in each nostril, and although it did make my eyes water, it wasn’t painful.

I know there are other places (eg CVS) that allow patients to self-swab, and are also cheaper.  However, I decided to go with Urgent Care because of the turnaround time of 48-56 hours, even though it was a bit more expensive (kama`aina discounts available).

I got my results in 31 hours.  

Next I will be blogging about the Safe Travels Program and the issues I had with the program and even uploading my negative results. 

In the meantime, with the new rules on the travel

program, I hope more partners become available that can send results quickly, and also that there becomes a cheaper option.