Dozens tested for COVID-19 at Ewa Beach drive-thru event
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Geeanne Llana was tested at Kalihi Kai Urgent Care’s drive-thru COVID-19 testing site at Ewa Beach, across from West Loch Elderly Village, where a non-resident tested positive for the virus.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Village resident Juliette Rawlins waited for the paperwork to get finished Wednesday.
Forty-three people were screened for COVID-19 during Oahu’s latest drive-thru testing at Asing Community Park in Ewa Beach on Wednesday.
The six-hour event was conducted by employees of Kalihi Kai Urgent Care in conjunction with the City and County of Honolulu.
State Rep. Rida Cabanilla, (D, Ewa Villages-Ocean Pointe-Ewa Beach) a registered nurse who owns Kalihi Kai Urgent Care, said the vast majority of those tested Wednesday were seniors.
Three senior housing developments are in the immediate area, including the city’s West Loch Elderly Village, which on Wednesday was linked to a positive case of COVID-19, although the individual was not a resident of the complex.
Photo Gallery: Free COVID-19 drive-thru testing in Ewa Beach
Cabanilla said turnout was relatively low Wednesday in part because the testing venue was moved from Ewa Mahiko District Park to Asing Community Park at the last minute.
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“We could have doubled the number of tests,” she said.
Kalihi Kai Urgent Care will hold another drive-thru testing event Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Geiger Community Park in Ewa Beach.
The clinic has been conducting drive-thru events in the Ewa area twice a week for three weeks and has tested more than 500 people, Cabanilla said.
During that time, she said, only four people have tested positive and they were asymptomatic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that up to 25% of those with the coronavirus may not have any of the flu-like symptoms or the dry cough typical of COVID-19.
Cabanilla invited anyone who believes they may been been exposed to the virus — whether they feel sick or not — to come to Friday’s testing.
Test results are known in three days and may return even sooner, she said.
