Jenkins Says Local Officials Will Take Over Federal Government Coronavirus Tests In Dallas County

Updated at 9pm: Revised to include a statement by Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson.

Dallas County will terminate its agreement with the federal government this week and take almost full control of publicly funded coronavirus tests in an effort to provide faster results, County Judge Clay Jenkins announced on Twitter on Monday.

The change comes after Commissioner John Wiley Price on Friday raised concerns that the results of tests provided by the federal government took too long, up to two weeks.

Price also suggested that the city and county had created an uneven system this month when a private company, Honu, was hired to test at the University of Dallas.

The private laboratory is providing results in the northern half of the county in approximately two days, while the laboratory contracted by the federal government to perform operations at the testing center at Ellis Davis Field House in the Red Bird area is taking almost two weeks. .

Jenkins agreed with Price.

“We have to do the right thing for the people of Dallas,” he said Monday. “I appreciate career politicians in the federal government. But eight to 10 days is too long. “

Jenkins said federal testing at the Ellis Davis Field House would end Wednesday and that the city and county, in collaboration with Parkland Health & Hospital Systems, will work quickly to find another provider to perform the tests. Meanwhile, Parkland will administer up to 500 tests each day at Ellis Davis Field House.

The new contract would be paid with local tax dollars, Jenkins said, although he expected the federal government to reimburse part of the cost, as is typical during public disasters.

Honu’s contract for the University of Dallas site at Irving is valued at $ 20 million and has been paid for by federal money that Congress sent to local governments as part of its coronavirus relief package.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement that community-based testing sites have been vital during the pandemic, but maintaining the status quo is not in the best interest of the community.

“We will continue to appreciate federal aid in other aspects of our response to this national crisis,” said Johnson.

Jenkins for months has lobbied for more and faster testing, and has publicly and privately pleaded with state and federal officials for the chemicals needed to run the tests locally. Health officials estimate that the county could provide thousands of tests a day at Parkland and UT Southwestern Medical Center if they were provided with the necessary supplies.

State and local officials have also repeatedly had to plead with Washington to extend the federal dollars that support major test sites.

On Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott announced that the US Department of Health and Human Services had extended funding for community-based testing sites in Dallas, as well as three in Houston, through the end of July. .

The Trump administration had granted a two-week extension to the five Texas sites in late June, reversing a previous decision to end its funding.

Texas lawmakers, including Republicans Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Democratic Representatives Colin Allred and Eddie Bernice Johnson, had written letters to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, urging them to extend the funds to Sites like the new state coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and positivity rate continued to rise.

Federal funding for the Dallas sites would also expire April 10 and the end of May, but was extended both times.

Demand for COVID-19 tests continues to rise, the Quest Diagnostics laboratory reported Monday.

The company said in a press release that it takes a little more than a day for its highest-priority patients to receive their results, but a week or more for everyone else.

The company said it has nearly double the capacity of tests it had eight weeks ago, now at 125,000 tests, but demand has increased beyond that. This problem is national across the laboratory industry, company officials said.

In Dallas, a new test site was expected to open Monday in Pleasant Grove, but supplies and test equipment were stolen overnight, causing a delay, authorities said.

The site at the Salvation Army Pleasant Grove Corps Community Center, 8341 Elam Road, will open at 7:30 am Tuesday. It will run from 7:30 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday or until testing capacity for the day is reached.

Testing is a key strategy to control the coronavirus, which has spread through Texas and other states at breakneck speed, overwhelming hospitals and health agencies.

Dallas County New Cases, Deaths

Dallas County reported 1,114 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, the eleventh consecutive day that the count has exceeded 1,000, as Jenkins said the community’s spread of the virus was still rampant.

County officials also reported six more deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The victims included four Dallas men: one in his 50s, two in his 60s and one in his 70s. A DeSoto man in his 70s and a 90-year-old Mesquite woman who were long-term care facility residents as well. died from COVID-19.

The latest figures bring the county to 34,914 confirmed cases, about 13.2 per 1,000 residents, and 457 deaths. The county does not report recoveries.

New data on hospitalizations, emergency room visits and intensive care admissions will be available Tuesday due to reports over the weekend, health officials said.

Last week, the county saw increasing hospitalizations and record visits to the emergency room. Authorities reported that Thursday, there were 757 visits to the emergency room for COVID-19 symptoms in Dallas County, representing more than a third of all visits. There were also 809 people hospitalized with the virus.

Jenkins said in a written statement that there is a “rampant spread of the community” of the coronavirus.

“It’s been just over four months since we reported our first case in Dallas County, and I know everyone is ready to find a sense of normality, even if that means our ‘new normality,'” he said.

However, people are more likely to come into contact with someone with the virus now than when the county’s stay-at-home order was in effect, he said.

Tarrant county

Tarrant County reported 322 more cases of COVID-19 on Monday, but there were no new deaths from the virus.

There are 626 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and there have been a total of 272 deaths.

Tarrant County has seen 18,483 cases, or about 8.8 per 1,000 residents. The county says 8,735 patients have recovered.

Collin County

Collin County officials reported two new deaths from the coronavirus on Monday, as well as 152 new cases.

No additional information was available on the latest victims.

The county has had 4,685 cases in total, or about 4.5 per 1,000 residents, and 58 deaths.

Authorities say 174 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 and that 3,681 have recovered.

Denton County

Denton County officials announced 113 new cases of coronavirus on Monday.

The county has seen 40 deaths from COVID-19 and 4,162 confirmed cases, about 4.7 per 1,000 residents.

County data showed 91 people hospitalized with the virus on Monday, as well as 1,730 recoveries.

Other counties

The Texas Department of State Health Services has been tasked with reporting coronavirus cases in several North Texas counties, and they may not report updated totals every day.

The last numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 467 cases, 17 deaths.
• Kaufman County: 971 cases, five deaths.
• Ellis County: 1,637 cases, 20 deaths.
• Johnson County: 788 cases, four deaths.

Writer Allie Morris contributed to this report.