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With New $5 Abbott Test, Hawaii Travel Can Restart

It’s about time something good happened for Hawaii travel. With today’s Abbott Labs emergency approval from the FDA, that may well just have happened. Can you picture first using your phone to show a boarding pass to get on the plane, then on arrival in Hawaii, using it to produce the proof of negative COVID test results with a digital health pass?

Beat of Hawaii: We cannot imagine that Hawaii will not be all over this test as the way to eliminate mandatory 14-day quarantine. That is currently extended until at least October 1. Hopefully, we will hear something from the state sooner than later as to how this fits into their previously announced, but never realized pre-travel testing program.

The new test, which just received emergency approval, detects Covid-19 identifies infection within 15 minutes. US DHHS Assistant Secretary Grett Giroir called it a “game changer” too. The Covid-19 test cost just $5 and comes with a mobile app to display negative date-stamped test results. Testing is done by a health care provider and it is not entirely clear when travelers will have access.

The test uses a shorter nasal swab and is similar to a flu test. Fifty million tests are expected to be produced per month starting in October. Abbott, via Baylor Colege of Medicine virology professor Joseph Petrosino said, “The massive scale of this test and app will allow tens of millions of people to have access to rapid and reliable testing.”

A collection swab is swirled through both nostrils, then inserted into the BinaxNOW card together with a few drops of a liquid  (extraction buffer). The card is then closed and the sample flows on a pad surface which contains reactive modules.

 

 

103 thoughts on “With New $5 Abbott Test, Hawaii Travel Can Restart”

  1. It’s July 2021, is the BinaxNow test accepted? (If not, it would be good to know why as-well. Thank you!)

    1. Hi Scott.

      Add far as we know no it is not. Feel free to check with the state’s Safe Travels.

      Aloha.

  2. Thank you for this article. It’s unfortunate that Hawaii (in general which is my error) but chooses the side of money. Why choose which COVID partners to use when there’s no evidence that 100’s of other COVID testers, including nationally recognised hospitals, does not meet the potential kick backs of a 100 or so “partners” in their beaurcracy while COVID free people, in a flux situation are treated like guilty party’s of leper’s who made the mistake of using an unofficial yet. Nationally recognised American hospital and bad advice from a clueless travel agent …and again are COVID free it ends up in quarantine after spending $10k to visit this great state but to be left feeling like a bad person when the paper pushers are smiling down upon ms. Huh.

  3. I’ve been advocating for quick-tests for more than a month now to every forum and contact I can reach. Did get response from Lt Gov who said pretravel testing was a good plan but the tests needed EUA. Now there are two different companies with EUA’s, but my recent email to Lt Gov has been ignored. I don’t understand. Such a plan would be so simple to implement and with Abbott’s test, you get an app as well to use as a form of passport. Why does it take SOOOO LONG for Hawaii government to create and execute a plan? Makes one wonder if there isn’t an ulterior motive? Maybe a vested interest in he development of a “local test”? Just asking.

    1. Not everything is a deep, dark conspiracy. So far most of the hyped tests have proven to be grossly inaccurate. Unless and until this one proves to be reliable, the State of Hawai’i is absolutely correct to proceed with caution. We all seem to love magic bullets, when unfortunately they seem to be very elusive. As far as motives go, the current US administration seems desperate to look good, regardless of whether or not there is any scientific basis for their excited recommendations. This means approving/endorsing tests and treatments which are later shown to be deficient. This might be just another of those. Time will tell.

  4. The Hawaii government had previously indicated that they were requesting a negative NAAT test 72 hours prior to arrival in Hawaii. Unfortunately, this Abbott test is not that type of test but an antigen test.

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