Hundreds of National Guard members will continue to aid Hawaii in COVID response

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - President Joe Biden has granted the governor’s request to extend aid from the Hawaii National Guard’s Joint Task Force in providing COVID support for the state.

Officials said there are currently about 550 soldiers and airmen from the Hawaii National Guard who help with various COVID response tasks.

The Guard supports multiple state agencies with airport passenger thermal screenings, administering COVID tests and vaccines, contact tracing, providing outreach to at-risk communities and distributing PPE.

This extension of assistance comes as Hawaii continues to grapple with the surge in positive COVID cases and hospitalizations as well as the concerning spread of the delta variant.

Officials said federal orders for the Hawaii National Guard was set to end in September, but under this extension, members will provide support to all state counties until the end of December.