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ATES STARTING FROM $149 PLUS off parking and no resort charge BOOK NOW AT OUTRIGGER.COM/KAMAAINA OR CALL 808-921-6808 Reaching 287,289 daily readers Monday-Saturday HAWAII STRONG Our View A10 Your Letters A10 local Kokua Line B1 Obituaries B6 business Business Report B4 Local stocks B5 daily break Comics B8-9 Television B10 sports UH football C1 NFL C5 538-NEWS CALL TO SUBSCRIBE Our 140th year, No. 242 AY 9 3 0 2 1 $1.50 Oahu, $2 neighbor islands PA A I TA A I INSIDE Wahine freshman setter Kate Lang makes smooth transition to starter SPORTS C1 9 endangered species in Hawaii officially declared extinct by U.S. LOCAL B1 Hawaii public schools gear up for COVID-19 testing program The state Department of Education is ramping up fed- erally funded on-campus COVID-19 screening as an added measure in its battle against the coronavirus pan- demic. At least 165 schools across the state have registered for training to join Operation Ex- panded Testing, and 67 of those schools are already ac- tively testing with more schools signing up every day, officials said Wednesday. In addition, another feder- ally funded testing program, called ELC (Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity), has been launched at a dozen neighbor island schools and is expected to expand to Oahu in the coming weeks.

Run as a partnership with the DOE and the state De- partment of Health, these programs come at a time when the highly transmissi- ble delta variant has made children more vulnerable to the virus and as more than 3,000 cases have been linked to public school campuses since the start of the school year. The state has been criti- cized for not starting these programs earlier, but of- ficials said it takes time to establish testing using volunteer labor. DOE spokeswoman Na- nea Kalani said the depart- ment asked the National Guard for help with staffing but the request was denied because the the guard was al- ready supporting other test- ing, vaccination and education efforts tied to the virus fight, along with Please see SCHOOLS, A6 By Timothy Hurley CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE FOR THE LATEST UPDATES: Get free access at staradvertiser.com/ coronavirus. ilauea Volcano has started erupting again just four months after the last eruption ended. A five-month eruption at Halemaumau Crater had completely stopped in May, but just few months later the Hawaiian Volcano Observa- tory reported that another had begun.

The eruption started Wednesday afternoon and was flowing at a high effu- sion according to Ken Hon, the scientist-in-charge at HVO, who estimated lava that are 50-100 feet a lot. already 10 meters of lava in the crater as of 5:30 (p.m.),” Hon told the Hono- lulu Star-Advertiser. HVO first detected lava glowing at summit just two hours prior. volcano is erupting. At approximately 3:20 p.m.

HST on September 29, 2021, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) detected glow in Kilauea summit web- cam images indicating that an eruption has commenced within Halemaumau crater in summit caldera, within Volcanoes Na- tional Park. Webcam imagery shows fissures at the base of crater generat- ing lava flows on the surface of the lava lake that was active until May it said in an advisory. As of Wednesday evening, lava was flowing from two fis- sures one on the floor of Halemaumau Crater and one on its western wall. Each of the fissures has numerous vents from which magma is flowing. one is pretty active.

It may be a little less active than the one that started last De- cember, but still a good- sized Hon said. John Tarson, owner of Epic Lava, an eco tour company, lives in the Volcano golf course subdivision, and immediately headed to the summit after the eruption started. live across the street, so I heard he said. Tarson went live on Face- book, recording the event early on. He spoke to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone at sunset Wednesday and de- scribed what he was seeing and hearing.

By Mark Ladao and Leila Fujimori PHOTOS COURTESY HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY Webcam imagery from the Hawaiian Volcano Observa- tory shows a new eruption within Halemaumau Crater on Wednesday. At approximately 3:20 p.m., new ssures opened at the base of the crater, generating lava ows on the surface. Please see KILAUEA, A6 Waikiki Elementary Student Service Coordinator Trisha Fish instructed a student on how to self-administer a COVID-19 test on Wednesday. CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL.