- A Hawaiian official says the state got "two minutes" notice before the Trump administration on Friday announced measures to reroute potential coronavirus sufferers to them.
- The Department of Homeland Security plan is meant to contain the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus by rerouting US citizens returning from Wuhan to designated areas, like Honolulu.
- Hawaii Lt. Gov. Josh Green told The Washington Post that local officials were left to quickly figure out how to safely implement the new restrictions.
- Green told The Post on Monday that Hawaii officials were still waiting for notice from the Defense Department on where to put quarantined travelers.
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Officials in Hawaii say they got a heads-up of just "two minutes" when the Trump administration on Friday announced that the US is temporarily barring foreign nationals who have been in China within the past 14 days.
Many of these quarantined citizens will be sent to Honolulu, according to a plan by the Department of Homeland Security.
The measure is meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. It has so far killed at least 426 people and infected more than 20,000 across 24 countries.
The new regulations say that US citizens and permanent residents who have recently traveled to China's Hubei province (where Wuhan is the capital) will be quarantined for up to two weeks.
Those who have traveled to other provinces in mainland China will be screened and monitored upon arrival in the US.
The announcement said that Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu will be one of several US airports to receive flights from China.
Hong Kong and Macau are excluded from the travel ban. The rules took effect at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday.
A spokesperson for Hawaii Governor David Ige told Business Insider that state officials were told about the new flight rules "about two minutes ahead" of the DHS press conference on Friday. "Other than that, nothing," the spokesperson said.
Hawaii Lt. Gov. Josh Green told The Washington Post that said that the rollout of the new measures was "concerning."
"When you rush, you make mistakes, and this isn't a case where we can afford mistakes," he told The Post.
He said local officials were left to quickly figure out how to safely implement the new restrictions.
"The kind of questions people were asking were just basic things, like what is your protocol for routing planes into our airports? What is [Center for Disease Control]'s standard for quarantine? Where are we supposed to put these people?" he said.
Green told The Post on Monday that Hawaii officials were still waiting for notice from the Defense Department on where to house the quarantined travelers.
"We are an island state that is 80% dependent on tourism. This isn't a case where we can just put people up in hotels without great collateral risk," he said.
DHS Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf said in Friday's press release that the administration was implementing the quarantine to protect Americans.
"While the overall risk to the American public remains low, funneling all flights with passengers who have recently been in China is the most important and prudent step we can take at this time to decrease the strain on public health officials screening incoming travelers," Wolf said the statement.
According to the Post, it is still unclear how many new people have been placed under quarantine or have been denied entry into the US.