(BIVN) – The Hawaiʻi County Civil Defense issued a new COVID-19 message on Friday morning. The full text of the message is below the audio.

On today’s update of COVID-19, the number of active cases, monitored by the Department of Health, for Hawaii Island is twelve. Of this, one is hospitalized.

Yesterday’s testing of Kona Community Hospital staff and contractors resulted in 548 persons tested. Results are pending. Thank you Premier Medical and the County Task Force for conducting the testing.

The majority of states continue to see an increase of people being infected by the Coronavirus. We need your help to keep Hawaii Island numbers low. Please take the time to follow the preventive measures of face coverings, distancing, gatherings, and cleanliness. When you interact with Kupuna remember that they are the most vulnerable to Coronavirus, so we must be especially careful when visiting our loved ones. As a reminder, wearing of face coverings is mandatory on Hawaii Island.

For your information, a drive through testing is scheduled for today in North Kona at the Keauhou Shopping Center. Hours are from 9:00 in the morning to 12:00 noon. Mahalo Aliʻi Health for providing this service and the Hawaii National Guard and County Task Force for helping. An ʻOhana food service is also scheduled in South Kona at the Hoʻokena Elementary School and in Puna at the Pahoa Community Center. Distribution at both sites begins at 10:00 this morning. Thank you Hawaii Food Basket and their contributors for providing this service and the Hawaii National Guard and County Task Force for helping

Thank you for listening, thank you for doing your part to keep Hawaii safe.

A second pop-up testing clinic will be held on Saturday following the announcement of three COVID-19 positive cases in employees at Kona Community Hospital.