HOUSTON – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo gave a news conference Thursday where she announced new testing sites, including two rapid-test locations.
Hidalgo said the county is faring better than most areas, but there are still new cases coming in and more people being admitted to hospitals.
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According to Hidalgo, county hospitals are getting close to reaching capacity, so it is still important for people to continue practicing social distancing, wearing masks and following guidelines set in place to help slow the spread of coronavirus in the community.
Hidalgo said she is working on reopening the county and getting back to a normal life, but in order for that to happen, Harris County needs to reach its peak and start trending downward, and there needs to be more widespread testing.
Walgreens testing sites
The judge said she has been working with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Walgreens to bring two rapid-testing sites to the community.
County officials said the new sites are located at 14531 Westheimer Road in Houston and at 101 W. Southmore Ave. in Pasadena.
According to Hidalgo, the tests are 15-minute tests, and people will receive their results within 24 hours after the results are reported to the appropriate health agencies.
Hidalgo said the two sites will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Friday, and she anticipates about 200 tests can be done per day.
People must complete an online screening before going to the sites. Go to readyharris.org to find the registration link. First responders, healthcare workers and symptomatic people over 65 will be prioritized. Those people will also be required to register online.
The tests are available at no cost to the public, according to Roy Armstrong, Walgreens Regional Healthcare Director.
Armstrong said the tests are for the live virus, not the antibody test.
Click here to read more about the new testing sites.
Mobile testing sites
Hidalgo said the county was able to open two pop-up sites that will be able to serve those who may not be able to drive to one of the fixed testing sites in the county.
The sites will be moving to Precinct 1 and Precinct 3 on Friday and will move around Harris County based on need, Hidalgo said.
According to Hidalgo, the mobile test sites are seeing overwhelming demand because of the county’s geography and mobility issues, so the county is trying to work with FEMA to move some of the resources from the fixed sites to the mobile ones.
“We knew that was a need. We knew the geography was a problem. That’s why as soon as we got more resources, we established these sites that we can move around,” Hidalgo said. “The issue is that the two mobile sites we have procured independently through a vendor. (For) the two static sites, we receive resources from the federal government, and they require us, so far, to use them only for those sites.”
Hidalgo said the county is working to find a way to move any additional resources to the mobile sites, which are seeing higher demand. If the resources cannot be moved, the static sites may have to be opened up to a wider array of people, but Hidalgo said she wants to make sure symptomatic people are being prioritized before that happens.
People can also register for either the mobile or static testing sites at readyharris.org.
Reopening
Hidalgo said the county leaders are having conversations about when to open the economy and what to open when they do, but it is too soon to say when or what that would be.
“The focus right now is, yes, we are working on that, but, most importantly, we are not there yet,” Hidalgo said. “No. 1, we have to hit the peak. We haven’t hit it. No. 2, we need to have universal, accessible testing … I trust that as those two workstreams come forward -- more testing like the kind we announced today and also we level off that curve -- then we will be ready to move on.”
Hidalgo said that if people disregard the order and start going back out, the process needed to reopen will only take longer.
“We’re going to have the main peak, and we will hit that peak,” Hidalgo said. “Then, eventually, as we reopen, we will have another one and we’ll probably have more, so before we reopen, we’ve got to have clear projections of where we are going and how we’d react.”
Hidalgo said talking about reopening and planning is the easy part, but once the county reopens, there will be cases again and then what do you do? If the testing is not ready, then they will have to just shut everything back down.
“We can’t do this prematurely,” Hidalgo said. “It doesn’t serve the economy. We would just end up back where we started.”
Watch the full news conference below:
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo provides update on coronavirus testing in the county.
Posted by KPRC2 / Click2Houston on Thursday, April 16, 2020
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