Hawaii’s health director and state epidemiologist both expressed misgivings Thursday about adopting a COVID-19 testing model for travelers based on the one recently implemented in Alaska.
Health Director Bruce Anderson told the Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 there are “a lot of issues” with Alaska’s new policy.
That policy has three options for in-state arrivals: testing negative for the coronavirus either prior to boarding or after arrival, or complying with that state’s 14-day visitor quarantine.
“Where do you put them when they are in quarantine? What if they’re positive?” Anderson told lawmakers. “And it does, of course … put a lot of burden on the hospitals in Fairbanks and Anchorage where the flights are coming in, and the labs there that are supporting this whole activity.
“They had about 4,000 or 5,000 people today going through their airports. And about a third of them are tested before they come. About a third, they don’t get tested, for whatever reason. Their model includes pre-testing, and that’s a very important part.”
Hawaii Gov. David Ige recently extended the mandatory 14-day quarantine on visitors from out of state until July 31.
Dr. Sarah Park, the state’s epidemiologist, said the current testing capacity in Hawaii is about 3,000 tests daily, but she and Anderson both noted that not all test results can be turned around the same day.
Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, an Oahu Democrat, pressed the health officials on how more tests can be performed daily.
“What would it take to scale up to 5,000 arrivals a day, so 35,000 tests a week?” Keohokalole asked. “What would it take to 70,000 a week, because we can’t do 5,000 tests a day for the local community right now, right? What would it take to scale up to 350,000 tests a week … to go back to the way it was before (when about 35,000 passengers arrived daily)? What are the considerations, just from a resource standpoint, not out of a medical necessity standpoint?
“Because we’re about to go into session … to appropriate a lot of money,” he added, referring to the state Legislature reconvening next Monday.
Park replied that the supply chain for tests has improved but isn’t yet stable.
“If you could fix the supply chain issue and make it stable, and I don’t think you can, because that’s a global situation. That’s not just a huge situation for Hawaii, but for everywhere,” Park said. “When you change the conditions like that, then the turnaround time will, by necessity … go up … because now you have backlog. … Unless you increase capacity, and capacity is also supplies. So that’s … really important, because the supply situation is still unstable.”
Park added there are also shortages of manpower and laboratory instrumentation.
Anderson also said the tests “are not 100% reliable, far from it,” while Park referred several times to the “new COVID world” and told lawmakers no matter how many passengers are tested, with more travel, there will be an increase in coronavirus cases in Hawaii.
Park said she wants improvements in travel forms visitors are required to fill out and wants them to become electronic instead of paper documents so officials can monitor travelers in real time.
“I just want to get clarity,” said Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, the committee chairman. “So, Dr. Park, you’re saying the pre-tests, you’re uncomfortable with. So what about testing upon arrival?”
“Still, it’s testing out of context,” she replied. “For my part, I’ve made my recommendations, and so at this point, I just want to make sure that these travelers are somehow going to be able to be tracked by us if this is going to be allowed.
“Because, you know, from my perspective, that’s going to be very critical.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.