In today’s media briefing about the Hawaii COVID-19 situation, Lieutenant Governor Dr. Josh Green and State Health Director Bruce Anderson confirmed that the state now has a new policy regarding testing of the close contacts for people who have tested positive for COVID-19.  From now on, all close contacts of those people who have COVID-19 will be tested whether or not they have symptoms.  Up until now, only those people with symptoms (cough, fever, sudden loss of taste or smell, difficulty breathing) have been tested.

Dr. Edward Desmond, Director of the Hawaii State Laboratory, said the State has now received 15 of the “rapid test kits,” which will give results within 15 minutes.   They will be distributed to hospitals on all islands.  Based on the current volume of test kits, the receiving institutions should be able to do 120 tests per week (total for the state) with these machines.  Dr. Desmond said he plans to try to get more test kits via alternate means to increase the number of test that can be done per week.