VIDEO: 1.7K people from botched COVID-19 tests at Kaneohe and LCC sites will receive follow-up emails for retesting, Kirk Caldwell says
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / AUG. 31
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell held a press conference today to address the over 1,7000 mislabeled COVID-19 tests.
Just less than a week into the COVID-19 surge testing program, over 1,700 Oahu residents have been told to retake their COVID-19 tests because of test tube mislabeling at Kaneohe District Park and Leeward Community College testing sites.
Honolulu Kirk Caldwell said Monday people who had “incomplete tests” should be expecting to receive two emails from the testing company eTrueNorth, which will inform testers what occurred and where to receive their follow-up tests.
“Approximately 1,776 vials were not labeled correctly,” Caldwell said, adding that names and birthdates were not included on the labels due to miscommunication. Caldwell said test tubes will be labeled correctly moving forward.
“We want them to believe in the program,” Caldwell said. “It’s incumbent on us to make it work better. We want them to come and get tested.”
Hawaii has had a long run of triple-digit increases in daily coronavirus cases since Aug. 3. Majority of the cases have been reported on Oahu, which prompted a state, city and federal government partnership to offer free mass testing on Oahu with plans to administer tests to 5,000 people each day for two weeks.
The city has recorded 34,986 COVID-19 testing registrations over the last five days, and 10,534 people have been tested over the last two days, Caldwell said. He encouraged Oahu residents to bring their “family bubbles” with them to get tested.
“We don’t want them to give up because of the glitches on the first day that we’ve learned from,” Caldwell said.
>> RELATED: State confirms H-3 closures next week for COVID-19 testing
City officials plan to close H-3 freeway for 13 hours to conduct surge testing on Sept. 1 and 3. Traffic from Kaneohe must enter H-3 from Kamehameha Highway since the Likelike on-ramp will be closed. Traffic from Honolulu may enter H-3 from H-1 or Moanalua Freeway, where Honolulu Police Department officers will direct drivers to an open testing station.
On Monday, state health officials recorded seven deaths and 133 new coronavirus cases. Health officials also reported 107 new cases today on Oahu, 24 on Hawaii island, one in Maui County and one resident diagnosed outside of the state.
Watch the video above.
