Hawaii is looking to ease restrictions on gatherings, according to a news conference held by Hawaii Gov. David Ige and Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi on Friday, Oct. 8.

In August, after a spike in COVID-19 infection rates, Mayor Blangiardi restricted large gatherings, restaurants, bars, and other businesses.

“With input from epidemiologists and public health specialists, we continue to determine the amount of risk we can accept in easing some restrictions in a very measured way,” Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, told Travel Weekly. “In reality, there is no simple metric that we can use to determine when it’s appropriate to ease restrictions. This is a complex equation that involves multiple considerations.”

On October 8, the state of Hawaii became the first state to reach 90 percent vaccination rate among residents.

Gatherings are once again allowed, as long as safety precautions are followed, which require outdoor sports, venues, and concerts to operate at 50 percent capacity or a maximum of 1,000 attendees. All of those attendees must be vaccinated.

On October 20, indoor venues may operate at 50 percent capacity with no more than 500 attendees.

All other events continue to have restrictions of 10 people indoors and 25 people outside.

“Certainly, we’ll be looking at this activity and working with the hotel industry and hospitality industry in general to have a more specific response and announcement next week,” Gov. Ige told Travel Weekly. “We understand it takes time for hotels to ramp up, and we’re definitely working on a consistent message that we would want to broadcast to travel partners all around the world.”