Positive COVID-19 tests increase as Hawaii’s free trial program ends

The percentage of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Hawaii increased over the past week and increased for the fifth week in a row as the omicron subvariant BA.2 retained its dominance in the islands.

On Wednesday, the state’s weekly average positivity rate rose to 7.1% – up from 4.9% the previous week and 4.0% the week before, according to the state’s health ministry. A month ago, the exchange rate was only 2.9%.

Tim Brown, an infectious disease model at East-West Center in Manoa, said the numbers are alarming, given that the rate is rising even though the daily number of tests is declining, meaning the overall level of infection in the community is rising.

“We are clearly in an increasing phase of the pandemic now,” Brown said. “Today’s figures confirm what I’ve been suspecting all along.”

The number of COVID-19 cases is greatly underestimated and becomes less reliable as more people use home test kits whose results are not shared with DOH, he said.

Given that wastewater monitoring data are not yet available for Hawaii, Brown considers the positivity rate to be the best available indicator at present.

“Basically, what’s happening right now is that people have forgotten COVID, but the reality is that it’s still spreading in society,” Brown said during his appearance Friday on Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program.

“It spreads invisibly because people do not get information and data about what is happening in society.”

The DOH reported 1,736 new infections during the previous week, bringing the total number since the start of the pandemic to 245,035 cases. There were 17 more deaths, a total of 1,407.

Admission rates remain low, although rising, with 36 COVID-19 patients reported Wednesday compared with 29 the week before. However, no one was on intensive care or on a respirator.

Since the state’s indoor mask mandate ended in March, residents have been in the dark about COVID-19 data, according to Brown, who said DOH should deliver the numbers on a daily basis.

“To live with COVID, the public needs to have a clear picture of what is happening with COVID in the community so that they can make appropriate choices,” he said. “The fact that data is no longer visible to people is a significant contributor to this inability to respond.”

But DOH, which shifted from daily to weekly posting of its COVID-19 data reporting on March 9, said it plans to continue with the latter.

Also on Wednesday, the National Board of Health offered its last day off COVID-19 test by partner Aloha Clear and the National Kidney Foundation as the contract and federal funding ended. The DOH said this is part of its transition from emergency preparedness to disease management as described in a plan released Tuesday.

“Throughout the pandemic, Hawaii has consistently had one of the lowest COVID-19 cases per capita and death,” DOH said in its summary. “DOH will build on its first two years of pandemic experience to continue to protect Hawaii’s residents and visitors.”

According to the plan, DOH would move away from large test sites in the local community to a combination of home self-tests and tests in traditional health settings.

Vaccination efforts will also be transferred to health care, the plan said. DOH has some providers offering home vaccinations to those who are weak or elderly, but it will also soon end with the expiration of federal funding.

The transition, DOH said, does not mark the end of its public health response, but recognizes that “the world will not eliminate COVID-19 in the foreseeable future” and that new variants and further increases are likely.

DOH spent more than $ 79 million on its free community COVID-19 testing program from July to February, according to spokesman Brooks Baehr. In addition, DOH spent more than $ 11 million providing free COVID-19 test kits to schools and the community across the country.

“Most importantly, there are still opportunities out there,” Baehr said. “We have long said, take a free test on COVID.gov.”

Free coronavirus tests are also available at pharmacies and can be reimbursed through Medicaid and health insurance companies, he said, as well as through programs in all counties.

“Federally qualified health centers continue to offer them, and counties continue to offer them,” he said. “Three different programs are available through schools for students, teachers and for staff.”

The city and county of Honolulu this week restored Wednesday time for their free COVID-19 test program at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. The mobile laboratory at the airport is now open from 9am to 5pm daily except Sundays. The test site is in the Diamond Head Tour Group Area just past Baggage Claim 31.

Free testing is also available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays in Kapolei Hale and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays in Honolulu Hale, except on city breaks.