PO‘IPU — A COVID-19 drive-thru testing station opened last week at The Shops at Kuku‘iula, in the parking lot closest to the entrance of Urgent Care at Po‘ipu/The Clinic at Po‘ipu.
“We were getting calls from Urgent Care about the need for a testing site on the South Shore,” said Stacie Chiba-Miguel of The Shops at Kuku‘iula.
“Once we became aware of the rising demand for COVID-19 testing, our team worked collaboratively with Urgent Care at Po‘ipu to create a designated parking area where the individuals remain in their vehicle to provide a safe and convenient testing location.”
Working with the Urgent Care at Po‘ipu/The Clinic at Po‘ipu, a part of the Hawai‘i Health Systems Corporation Kaua‘i Region, the testing site is available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
“Since opening, testing has been pretty steady,” said Dr. Ronald Fujimoto, the HHSC Kaua‘i Region chief medical officer. “The weekend was steady, and Monday saw about 35 tests being done. Most of the traffic takes place earlier in the morning while people head to work. We get another rush at pau hana.”
Testing is pretty straightforward. The person needing a test simply drives into one of the designated parking stalls and calls the clinic at 808-742-0999. A team arrives at the car to assist with the test.
“We here at Urgent Care Po‘ipu are committed to taking care of all your health-care needs, including this easy, safe, drive-up COVID-19 testing,” said Dr. Holley Poag, the clinic medical director.
Chiba-Miguel said that, with the opening of the new testing site, dealing with COVID-19 is more convenient. People can get vaccinations from CVS Longs Drugs on one end of the shopping center, or testing by the clinic on the other end of the shopping center.
How much does the test cost?
There are hundreds of different FDA approved tests for Covid. There are Antigen tests and Molecular tests which are different from each other and their accuracy is not yet known! Some current studies are now coming out showing that around 25% of all tests that come back negative are inaccurate, and over 40% of all test results that are positive for Covid may be inaccurate! Following is the FDA and CDC information on test accuracy:
“Positive predictive value (PPV) varies with disease prevalence when interpreting results from diagnostic tests. PPV is the percent of positive test results that are true positives. As disease prevalence decreases, the percent of test results that are false positives increase.
For example, a test with 98% specificity would have a PPV of just over 80% in a population with 10% prevalence, meaning 20 out of 100 positive results would be false positives.
The same test would only have a PPV of approximately 30% in a population with 1% prevalence, meaning 70 out of 100 positive results would be false positives. This means that, in a population with 1% prevalence, only 30% of individuals with positive test results actually have the disease.
At 0.1% prevalence, the PPV would only be 4%, meaning that 96 out of 100 positive results would be false positives. Health care providers should take the local prevalence into consideration when interpreting diagnostic test results.”
Given the test accuracy numbers, why would one take or rely on such a crap shoot test? Google “false negative and positive rapid test results.” Read them all, and you decide for yourself.
Great to see A COVID-19 drive-thru testing station opened last week at The Shops at Kuku‘iula but I think it would be better suited in communities (like the Elelele Shopping Plaza) where it’s easily accessible to people without transportation. This reminds me of Florida where the governor stands accused of using the Covid-19 vaccine to reward powerful political supporters and developers by setting up pop-up vaccination sites in planned communities they developed and where their voters predominate. Eleele has both the parking space, the pharmacy and bus services.
McDonald’s all open and churches closed. LOL amazing