As of March 18, Houston and Harris County Public Health were hard at work to establish testing sites for COVID-19, the novel coronavirus.
As the virus has continued to spread exponentially in a matter of weeks, the city and county are attempting to have well-established testing venues that will provide the public with the resources they need in order to stem the tide of the virus’ spread.
According to KHOU, there had not been an announcement about when the sites would be open or where they would be located as of March 18. However, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced March 23 that there was an online screening tool available for those who wondered if they might be at-risk or exhibiting symptoms for the coronavirus. Additionally there are now two drive-thru sites for testing individuals for the virus.
The sites each have a capacity of 250 tests per day. Before visiting the sites, individuals who have a fever and dry cough are encouraged to take advantage of the online screening tool at readharris.org.
Following the online screening, individuals will be given an ID number and a phone number to call. During the call they will be told where to go for their test.
“I want to make sure folks know that we want folks who are tested to have symptoms,” Hidalgo said. “If we test folks who are not symptomatic, tests might be negative, false negative.”
Even though anyone can be tested, it is important that those who are sick are actually able to receive testing in a timely manner, Hidalgo explained.
“We do expect there to be a waiting list, we do expect folks, to have to say, look you're not meeting criteria for top priority,” Hidalgo said. “We'll be tweaking as we go along.”
Those without computer access should call 832-927-7575 to speak with someone about their symptoms.
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