Positive COVID-19 tests on the rise as Hawaii’s free testing program comes to an end

The percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 in Hawaii jumped over the past week, rising for the fifth consecutive week as the omicron subvariant BA.2 maintained 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 prior to that, according to the state Department of Health. A month ago, the rate was just 2.9%.

Tim Brown, an infectious disease modeler at the East-West Center in Manoa, said the figures are alarming, considering the rate is climbing even as the daily number of tests is dropping, meaning overall infection levels in the community are increasing.

“We are clearly in a rising phase of the pandemic now,” Brown said. “Today’s numbers confirm what I’ve suspected all along.”

COVID-19 case counts are greatly underestimated and becoming less reliable as more people use home testing kits, the results of which are not shared with DOH, he said.

Given that no wastewater-­monitoring data is available for Hawaii yet, Brown considers the positivity rate the best available indicator at this time.

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

“It’s spreading invisibly because people are not getting the information and data about what’s happening in the community.”

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

Hospitalization numbers continue to remain low, although they, too, are rising, with 36 COVID-19 patients reported on Wednesday compared to 29 the previous week. However, none were in intensive care or on ventilators.

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 be providing the numbers on a daily basis.

“To live with COVID, the public has to have a clear picture of what is happening with COVID in the community so they can make appropriate choices,” he said. “The fact that data is not visible to people any more is a major contributor to that ability to not respond.”

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

Also Wednesday, the Health Department offered its last day of free COVID-19 testing from partner Aloha Clear and the National Kidney Foundation, as the contract and federal funding concluded. DOH said this is part of its transition from emergency response to disease management as detailed in a plan published Tuesday.

“Throughout the pandemic Hawaii has consistently had one of the lowest per capita COVID-19 case counts and fatality rates,” DOH said in its executive summary. “DOH will build on its first two years of pandemic experience to continue protecting the health of Hawaii’s residents and visitors.”

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

Vaccination efforts also will transition to health care settings, the plan said. DOH has some providers who offer at-home vaccinations to those who are frail or elderly, but that, too, will end soon with the end 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 additional surges 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 to the community statewide.

“Most importantly, there are still options out there,” Baehr said. “We’ve been saying for a long time go get your free test at COVID.gov.”

Free coronavirus tests also are available at pharmacies and are reimbursable via Medicaid and health insurance companies, he said, as well as through programs in all of the 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 hours for its free COVID-19 testing program at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. The mobile lab at the airport is now open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Sundays. The testing site is in the Diamond Head Tour Group Area just past Baggage Claim 31.

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