Honolulu Airport Trusted Testing Lab Open
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced today that the City and County of Honolulu’s mobile testing laboratory at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport has been added to the list of trusted testing partners for inter-county travel.
The City, in partnership with the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii Consortium, opened the mobile testing laboratory near Baggage Claim 31 on the ground level of the state’s largest airport on November 1 to test for COVID-19. The laboratory, staffed by a team of local health care professionals, can process up to 10,000 tests a day with test results processed in 3 to 6 hours.
“It’s great to finally expand the use of this mobile lab to give local residents or visitors from the Continent another option to safely travel between our Counties, without being subject to the 14 day mandatory quarantine,” said Mayor Kirk Caldwell. “I’d like to thank the Governor, Incident Commander General Hara, and the State Department of Health for approving our Trusted Partner status and look forward to working together to find additional ways we can make travel to O‘ahu and between our counties safer. One test is better than no test and this COVID-19 mobile lab we’ve been able to stand up is just another layer of protection for the City and County of Honolulu and the entire State of Hawai‘i.”
Inter-county passengers arriving in Kauaʻi and Maui counties may bypass the mandatory 14-day quarantine if they take an FDA-authorized Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) up to 72 hours prior to departure, and the traveler receives a negative result. If results are not received prior to arrival, the traveler will be required to self-quarantine until a negative test result is reported to the state Department of Health.
Inter-county travelers to Hawaiʻi County who wish to avoid the 14-day quarantine can follow this protocol or elect to get a post-arrival test from a trusted partner. This would require the traveler to remain in quarantine until the negative test is reported and verified.
Travelers must register and upload their test results to their Safe Travels Hawaiʻi account and inter-county travelers must have the test result with them upon arrival so airport screeners can review the result.
The City’s airport mobile lab will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. These times will be adjusted in the future according to need. Testing is open to the public and while pre-registration is encouraged, no appointment is needed.
The City invested $16 million in CARES Act funding in the facility. It meets the requirements of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
People can visit kidneyhi.org or OneOahu.org for more information about the airport testing lab.
#rebuildingtravel
