- Title: COVID testing lines grow as Texas prepares for continued rise in cases
- Date: 8th July 2020
- Summary: HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA (JULY 7, 2020) (REUTERS) CARS DRIVING UP TO COVID-19 TESTING LINE WITH POST HOLDING U.S. AND TEXAS FLAGS IN FOREGROUND POLICE CAR WITH CONES DRIVING PAST STOPPED LINE OF CARS WAITING FOR TESTING CAR FULL OF PEOPLE WAITING TO BE TESTED MEDICAL WORKER IN FULL PPE WALKING UP TO CAR ON TESTING LINE AND HANDING PERSON A CARD system.scripts.system.scripts. MEDICAL WORKERS AT TABLE AND THEN ATTENDING TO LINE OF PEOPLE WAITING FOR COVID-19 TESTING (SOUNDBITE) (English) HARRIS COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DR. UMAIR SHAH, SAYING: "We're now seeing, unfortunately, is an increase Int he number of cases in the community on a daily basis Were also seeing an increase in hospitalizations. What's even more concerning though is not just that, but it's also the fact that we were previously seeing about one in ten, or even one in eight of our tests that we were doing in the community that were coming back positive. Now we're seeing one in four; so about 25 percent of all the tests we're doing, which we've also ramped up, but we're also seeing more of those that are coming back positive which concerns us for increase transmission in the community. AERIAL VIEW OF A SNAKING LINE OUTSIDE A HOUSTON TESTING CENTER MEDICAL WORKER IN FULL PPE ATTENDING TO PERSON IN CAR AND WALKING AWAY MEDICAL WORKER OPENING PACKAGE AND PUTTING LABEL ON IT MEDICAL WORKER AT CAR WRITING DOWN INFORMATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) HARRIS COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DR. UMAIR SHAH, SAYING: "As you dial up the reopening or dial up any of those activities that I talked about, whether it's someone going into restaurants or whether it's a reason for people to gather, every time you increase the amount of persons coming together you then see an effect a few weeks later, it's not right away. Conversely when you dial back you also see an improvement, not immediately but within a couple few weeks as well." . MEDICAL WORKER AT GRAY CAR WORKERS HANDING MAN IN PICK-UP TRUCK PACKAGE AND TALKING TO HIM (SOUNDBITE) (English) HARRIS COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DR. UMAIR SHAH, SAYING: "The hospitalizations and even the capacity issues within our healthcare system have had to employ surge mechanisms to be able to handle the kinds and numbers of patients that are coming in. There is a limit to how long they can do that. There will come a point where there is not enough runway and when they happens then we certainly are going to be very much crunched for those precious ICU or other kinds of capabilities. This is why it's so important for all of us to get ahead of this." DALLAS, TEXAS, USA (JULY 6, 2020) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS) DALLAS NURSE WAITING IN A CAR LINE TO GET TESTED DALLAS, TEXAS, USA (JULY 7, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DALLAS COUNTY DIRECTOR OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DR. PHILLIP HUANG, SAYING: "So we're seeing increasing percentages of younger patients, of younger populations that are testing positive. Now it was 50 percent that were behind 18 and 40 and we also have a large number of Hispanic patients and many from the essential workforce areas. SO that's been a large area in demographic. Lately since Memorial Day we're seeing the results of also just general community-wide spread." HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA (JULY 7, 2020) (REUTERS) TEXAS AND U.S. FLAGS ON POST
- Embargoed: 22nd July 2020 18:26
- Keywords: Covid Covid 19 Texas coronavirus hospitals infections pandemic testing
- Location: HOUSTON, TEXAS USA; DALLAS, TEXAS USA
- City: HOUSTON, TEXAS USA; DALLAS, TEXAS USA
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA001CLTAVRB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: With Texas battling a surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, people in Houston waited on long lines on Tuesday (July 7) for testing.
Texas is among several states, along with Florida and California, that are witnessing not just more cases, but high infection rates as a percentage of diagnostic tests conducted over the past week.
This has prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to say the area could benefit from testing to identify new cases, especially for people who are asymptomatic, and it has announced there would be temporary free COVID-19 testing in Jacksonville, Florida; Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Edinburg, Texas.
A nurse in Dallas told Reuters she had issues getting tested and was turned away from one testing site Monday (July 6) after waiting in line for an hour because the site changed to appointment-only at the last minute.
According to HHS, the temporary "surge testing" sites will be live anywhere from five to 12 days and testing will be available to non-residents of the community.
The sites will offer 5,000 tests per city every day, the agency said.
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