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How prepared are Hawaii hospitals for coronavirus?

Kaiser Permanente Hawaii held a drill with staff members
Souce: Honolulu Civil Beat

Honolulu, HAWAII — Federal health officials said it’s not a matter of if, but when the virus begins to affect communities throughout the U.S.

“With Hawaii’s close ties to Japan and South Korea, to me it feels like an inevitability,” said Dr. Tarquin Collis, the chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.

Civil Beat health reporter Eleni Gill explains how Hawaii hospitals are gathering backup emergency supplies, conducting drills and in some cases have already used isolation rooms for suspected COVID-19 cases that were quickly found to be the flu.

Preparations hospitals made during the 2014 and 2015 Ebola scares bolstered their emergency protocols, doctors told Civil Beat. Now, it’s a matter of updating the action plan for COVID-19.

Read more at Honolulu Civil Beat