COVID-19 testing continued Monday at Kona Community Hospital as the facility announced that just one of the 548 tests conducted on staff and affiliated employees, physicians and contractors last week returned positive for COVID-19.
Approximately 300 hospital staffers providing direct patient care were retested Monday as the Kealakekua health facility works to ensure the it is free of COVID-19 after several employees tested positive earlier this month for the novel coronavirus, according to hospital spokesperson Judy Donovan.
Results from Monday’s follow-up tests are expected to begin coming in today, Donovan said. All of the 548 persons tested on Thursday, including the 300 or so retested on Monday, will again be tested on Friday.
“Testing will continue through at least Friday, July 24.” said Interim Chief Nurse, Stephanie Irwin. “We’re very happy with the initial testing results. But, to account for an incubation period, we have more testing to do to assure staff and the community that the hospital is COVID-free.”
The single positive test announced Monday was a worker from out of state who previously had COVID-19, but had recovered and was symptom-free for more than the required 10-day period, according to Donovan. The case was among three pending results left on Saturday when the facility announced all but three of the 548 tests conducted Thursday had come back negative.
“This worker was cleared for work by the Hawaii Department of Health,” Donovan said in a press release.
The hospital also tested 43 inpatients with all results coming back negative with the exception of one patient, whose status was previously reported. No additional testing of the inpatient population is planned at this time, Donovan said Monday.
Also Monday, the hospital said that each of the 108 people who were tested for COVID-19 via a pop-up testing clinic it held with Premier Medical Group Hawaii on Saturday received negative results.
Lt. Gov. Dr. Josh Green, a Kohala Hospital emergency room doctor, called the proactive steps taken by Kona Community Hospital “particularly smart.”
“It’s the most thorough example of testing and confirmation testing that we’ve seen yet,” he said of the hospital’s commitment to conduct at least three facility-wide screenings.
With a shortage of critical and intensive care unit capacity and health care workers on the neighbor islands, especially on the Big Island and Kauai, it is important that the spread of the virus be halted, he said.
“They did the right thing once, and then the follow-up testing is smart,” Green said, “and, then the third testing — while probably overkill — is fantastic.”
The hospital still has a no visitor policy in place with exceptions for OB, pediatrics and those receiving end-of-life care.
