LIHU‘E — Ross Kagawa of the Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency was a one-man show on Friday at the Lihu‘e Neighborhood Center, which is where the last of the free COVID home test kits were distributed.
“Are you going to be alright?” asked Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami, who partnered with Kagawa in the distributions that started Wednesday in Hanalei. “I can get someone to help.”
Kagawa declined the offer, as he was greeted by the line of people at the Lihu‘e Neighborhood Center waiting for their allocation of the free COVID home test kits at the rate of five per family.
The county’s goal was to distribute 6,000 of the free COVID home test kits with the total distribution being broken down to include the North Shore of Hanalei, and Kilauea, the Westside, including the Waimea and Hanapepe Neighborhood Centers, and the East and Central areas on Friday.
“We had to start early in Kapa‘a because there was a line of people waiting,” Kagawa said. “Nearly 200 families were accomodated before we ran out of tests within the first hour.”
Based on previous home test kit distributions, Kagawa said Lihu‘e was going to be big because of the number of people who live in the area. He said any extra kits from the earlier distributions were set aside for the Lihu‘e distribution to handle the demand.
The county said although the expiration date of these tests is listed as November 2022, the tests received a seven-month, shelf-life extension from the Food and Drug Administration. This means the tests are set to expire in June 2023.
COVID testing is also available around the island. People can get a full list of county testing and other sites by visiting kauai.gov/covidtest.
The state’s Department of Health says testing should be done if an individual has COVID-19 symptoms, or has been in close contact with a person who has COVID-19.
The distribution of 6,000 COVID home test kits was done through the collaboration of the Kaua‘i District Health Office, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency.
Sadly Ross Kagawa gives about 20 kits to each person – so usually all kits are given out in the first 20 to 45 minutes. Other folks are out of luck!!!
In the rest of the country COVID has been long forgotten about. This place has proven one of the easiest to scare and brainwash people. Covid is the biggest scam of our lifetime. The only ppl that had issues with it were the preexisting conditions. We will still be reporting COVID cases in the newspaper for the next ten years yet the rest of the country will have already forgotten it even existed. If you are still scared and still wearing a mask you have proven to be one of the sheep. Many of you “believers” drive around in your car alone wearing a mask afraid your air conditioner might be spreading COVID or it will somehow get thru the windows. People from the rest of the world visit here and snap pictures of you and wonder “what is wrong with these people?” COVID will turn out to be the biggest brainwashing and scam of our lifetime. Wake up people and toss the mask that doesn’t work in the rubbish and breathe the garden island’s fresh air.
Iam thankful to have Covid testing kits available and I’m so thankful to live on Kaua’i where people care about each other and take precautions to protect each other!!! my husband is now at 10 days post positive Covid testing and my adult son is five days post Covid positive testing . we’re thankful to know so they can take precautions and not expose our Ohana and Kaua’i residents – follow CDC guidelines. People on Kaua’i care about others and want to protect their Ohana.