800 additional National Guard troops activated

The number of Hawaii National Guardsmen activated to provide support during the COVID-19 pandemic increases today.

An additional 800 soldiers and airmen will join the approximately 400 guardsmen activated last week to further assist in the fight against the novel coronavirus that’s now sickened 530 people and killed nine in the state, said Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi Jr. during the state’s daily briefing streamed online Tuesday.

“I am confident, by working together, we will meet our objectives of continuing to flatten the curve, and create a safe, secure environment for the people of Hawaii,” said Kaoiwi, director of the Hawaii Army National Guard’s Joint Task Force staff.

Kaoiwi didn’t provide details about the number of airmen and soldiers to be stationed in each county. However, he said the support of the now 1,200 Hawaii National Guardsmen activated in the state would be based on need.

“All of our support is based off of what the need is, so we are working with the Hawaii (County) Civil Defense and the mayor to determine what that is,” Kaoiwi said in response a query posed by West Hawaii Today.

For now, that is assisting with medical screening of passengers at airports, which has been taking place since April 6.

“We expect more additional requests to come in as the days go by and as such we will do is anticipate what the needs are and plan,” he said.

Kaoiwi said in reference to Hawaii County some security missions, contact tracing and other types of similar missions are expected, “but we’re not going to get ahead of what the requests are.”