HONOLULU (KHON2) — The demand for COVID testing has increased in the last few weeks which means some people are having to wait days to get their results.
Testing sites are averaging thousands of people a day. The Nomi Health Field Operations Direction in Hawaii Ailana Meyer said people are having to wait days to get their PCR test results.
“For PCR test, our lab on the mainland has an increase of volume across all states,” Meyer said. “So we are seeing a lot more delays than we would like. So our PCRs are taking about three to four days to result.”
Nomi Health has eight permanent testing locations across Oahu and the Big Island. At the peak of testing, the Ala Moana and Stadium sites saw about 2,000 people a day. Meyer said they have enough supply and PPE to handle the surge, but now staffing is the issue.
Meyer said, “The bigger difficulty that we have is just staffing our sites with the increase of COVID-related absences. So not necessarily COVID-positive cases on our staff, but definitely a lot of close contacts.”
The National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii said the turnaround time for PCR test results remains between six to eight hours.
Meanwhile, Nomi Health is preparing to open a location in Kapa’a on Kauai. The Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall testing center reached its capacity within the first hour of opening on Tuesday.
Meyer said, “There’s definitely a need on the outer islands for additional test sites. So that’s kind of where our focus is and trying to bring the testing and services that we have to those population.”
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Testing locations throughout the state can be found here.
