Richard Hill
Senior
Public Information Officer
Tarrant County Public Health
817-321-5306 direct
817-401-5967 cell
rwhill2@tarrantcounty.com
March 5, 2020 (Tarrant County, TX) – Tarrant County Public
Health (TCPH) today announced that their health lab now has the
capability to test for COVID-19. Tarrant County joins other labs
across the state who now have local testing capability, including
Dallas, Houston, El Paso and Lubbock.
“We want to
reassure the public that Tarrant County residents will now have access
to COVID-19 testing at our public health lab,” said Tarrant County
Public Health Director Vinny Taneja. “Although availability is limited
at this time, we will be working with our medical community to ensure
the test is available for people who meet the case definition for
COVID-19 testing,” he said.
Until now, local health
departments were sending samples to the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) for testing, which could take up to a week for results. Tarrant
County Public Health will now be able to test for the novel
coronavirus with same day or next day results. Tarrant County has
received 800 test kits from the CDC and more are on the way. Taneja
expects the TCPH lab will be able to process 50 to 100 tests per day
by next week.
There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tarrant County.
The COVID-19 virus causes respiratory illness with fever and cough and may lead to bronchitis and severe pneumonia. Symptoms are similar to the flu and include runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever and a general feeling of being unwell. It is similar to the SARS and MERS Coronaviruses. This is more common in people with cardiopulmonary disease and weakened immune systems.
County Telephone Operator 817-884-1111
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