Hawaii County will suspend all county-sponsored COVID-19 testing operations beginning Saturday.
The decision comes as on-island case counts and hospitalizations related to COVID have drastically decreased, significantly reducing community need for large-scale testing sites, according to a county news release.
Additionally, the suspension will supplement the sunsetting of Gov. David Ige’s pandemic emergency proclamation, which will end at 11:50 p.m. Friday. Some private vendors may continue COVID-19 testing operations islandwide, and Civil Defense will maintain its database on alternative testing locations, which may be found at hawaiicounty.gov/testing.
County-sponsored testing began on March 23, 2020, and administered 90,310 PCR tests islandwide throughout the two-year period.
“We have been at the forefront of testing operations since the onset of the pandemic, and this weekend we will hand that responsibility over to our on-island care providers who continue to step up and play a significant role in the slowing of the spread on our island,” said Mayor Mitch Roth in the news release.