HONOLULU (KHON2) — The City and County of Honolulu has announced that they will end the free COVID-19 testing program on Dec. 30.
After consulting with the Department of Health and its statewide COVID-19 transition plan, Honolulu County has decided to cease testing operations at the Airport Mobile Lab at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu Hale and Kapolei Hale.
“I would like to offer our warmest mahalo to the dedicated staff from the National Kidney Foundation of Hawai‘i who have worked tirelessly to keep our entire community safe from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mayor Rick Blangiardi.
The plan will allow people to continue acquiring necessary tests from their physicians and hospitals or by using home tests.
“These men and women showing up day in and day out, even on holidays, putting their own health at risk to make sure we were mitigating the spread of the coronavirus on O‘ahu. Well done! Bravo,” added Blangiardi.
You can continue to test at home or through your healthcare provider since statistics gathered from current testing sites do not support their continued use, according to officials.
“We appreciate the City helping to make testing accessible for the community,” said State Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Char, FACEP. “It was a good community resource and allowed people to make informed decisions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
Honolulu will be working with non-profits to ensure that underserved communities maintain access to medical assistance with Community Health Centers being directed to distribute as many of the remaining test kits as possible.
