Hawaiian Airlines today opened a COVID-19 testing site at Long Beach Airport for passengers flying from the municipal airfield to Honolulu. This is the airport’s first dedicated testing site.
The drive-through service is available exclusively for Hawaiian passengers utilizing one of the airline’s five weekly flights. The service costs $90 in addition to the price of the ticket and results are guaranteed within 36 hours.
Beginning Saturday, Long Beach Airport will also begin operation of its own general drive-through COVID-19 testing site available for all other passengers traveling through the facility. The city site will be operated by Covid Clinic daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and provide rapid results within two hours.
For its testing site, Hawaiian partnered with Long Beach-based Worksite Labs, which operates the testing site daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“We think about testing in terms of people being sick but very seldom do we build capacity so that people can live normal lives. Beyond being sick, people need to be tested for work, for school, for travel,” Worksite Labs CEO and Long Beach resident Gary Frazier said. “In a perfect world, every single person would be tested, not just when you’re in trouble.”
Frazier said he expects the site to administer an average of about 100 tests per day once fully operational and advertised. A dedicated lab has been set up in tandem with the airport testing location, which allows Worksite to offer the quick result turnaround time, Frazier added.
All travelers to the islands ages 5 and up must present a negative coronavirus test taken no more than 72 hours before the flight departure. The negative result must then be uploaded onto a state website prior to departure. Failure to present a negative test results in a 10-day quarantine upon arrival.
To ensure travelers are tested within the appropriate window for their specific departure, Frazier said they must enter their departure date into the Worksite website, which will then only show dates that meet Hawaii’s requirement.
The island state is extremely strict when it comes to COVID-19 safety protocols. In December, a couple traveling back home to Wailua with their 4-year-old child was arrested upon arrival to the island because they had tested positive for the virus prior to their flight and knowingly still boarded their flight.
The Long Beach testing location is Worksite’s sixth along the coast. By mid-February Frazier said the company will be up to about 11 sites from San Diego to Portland.