Tarrant County Public Health now has testing capability for COVID-19

Tarrant County Public Health now has testing capability for COVID-19

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.

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