Today, Houston’s COVID-19 recovery czar Marvin Odum announced a plan to expand testing for the coronavirus and add 300 more contract tracers. Odum was appointed by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner last month, and he plans to have 24 more testing sites opened throughout the city by the end of May.
The new sites will be both mobile testing units and drive-through sites, and they will be concentrated in geographic areas with vulnerable populations at most risk of contracting the coronavirus. The sites will be moved as necessary to achieve this goal. COVID-19 testing will be free.
Odum said: “COVID-19 remains a real and present danger in all our lives. As we continue to reopen Houston, we must do it safely.”
Houston will also be expanding its contact tracing, which is a process that tracks where a person who has COVID-19 has been and who they’ve been in contact with. The people acting as contact tracers then contact everyone who the positive person has interacted with and inform them about the steps they need to take.
The city currently has 125 contact tracers, and to find the 300 more people needed to fill the available contact tracer positions, city health officials will turn to local universities and will hold job fairs.
Odum and other health officials have noted that slowing the spread of coronavirus does go beyond adding additional testing locales and contact tracers. They have noted that people must continue to practice social distancing and wear face coverings in public.
As Mayor Turner noted: “This is still a health crisis. The virus is still here. And what we are trying to do in the very best way is to manage the virus while trying to open the city.”
Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced his second phase of statewide reopening that allows beauty salons, nail and tanning salons, and barbershops to reopen this Friday, May 8th. Establishments across the state are preparing for openings within the guidelines provided.
Funding for the new testing and contact tracing initiatives comes from money that the city received by the Federal government CARES Act. Stick with CDL for all your COVID-19 news and updates.
