Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to amend and pass a bill that authorizes COVID-19 coronavirus health screenings of travelers at the state's ports of entry.

Highlights:

• Authorizes the director of health to declare a public health emergency and exercise all of the following powers (Sec. 2):

• Require health care provider reporting, screening, testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation of persons deemed by the Department of Health to be infected, at higher risk of infection, or at risk for spreading infection;

• Require declarations from travelers of their health status, travel history, and intended lodging or residence plans;

• Require first responders and part of all of the public to implement safeguards designed to prevent infections, including social distancing, temporary closure of schools, temporary closure of businesses, hygiene procedures, and the wearing of personal protective equipment;

• Release otherwise confidential information if the director determines that the disclosure is necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare from imminent harm; and

• Take any other action as deemed necessary by the director to prevent, prepare for, respond to, mitigate, and recover from a serious outbreak of communicable or dangerous disease. 

• Authorizes the director to do the following in order to detect, prevent, prepare for, respond to, mitigate, or recover from the transmission of communicable or dangerous diseases by traveling member of the public (Sec. 2):

• Screen interisland, domestic, or international travelers for evidence of communicable diseases by using a screening method approved by the Department; 

• Investigate interisland, domestic, or international travelers and persons in contact with those travelers, as determined by the director; 

• Review the health status of international, domestic, or international travelers after their arrival, after consultation with and authorization from the governor;

• Quarantine interisland, domestic, or international travelers after their arrival, after consultation with and authorization from the governor; 

• Isolate interisland, domestic, or international travelers after their arrival, after consultation with and authorization from the governor; and

• Enlist the services or collaboration of any other federal, state, county, or private entity to assist with any of the previously mentioned activities.

• Specifies that travelers arriving in a Hawaii port of entry may be required to provide a completed State of Hawaii traveler questionnaire form (Sec. 2).

• Authorizes an individual subject to quarantine or isolation under the rules of this bill to request a hearing in the courts to contest the order (Sec. 3).

• Defines “dangerous disease” as any illness or health condition that might pose a substantial risk of a significant number of human fatalities or incidents of permanent or long-term disability (Sec. 3).

• Defines “screening” as a diagnostic tool administered to detect the presence of a communicable or dangerous disease in an individual and may include the measuring of a person’s temperature (Sec. 3).

• Specifies that “screening” also includes the administration of one or more questionnaires used to conduct surveillance of disease activity or to determine to whom a test or diagnostic tool is to be administered (Sec. 3).

Full Bill Text