Coronavirus spike likely to continue in Fort Worth area, health director says
A spike in the number of novel coronavirus cases is likely to continue in Tarrant County, said Public Health Director Vinny Taneja, but he wouldn’t say if county hospitals were at risk of reaching patient capacity.
There is also no plan to begin drive-through testing for the virus in Tarrant County, he said.
“I can tell you those discussions are happening almost on a daily basis,” he said.
Hopefully, Taneja said, point-of-care tests, those administered at hospitals and urgent care clinics, will be come readily available. But there is a growing shortage of testing supplies, Taneja noted. Not only are there few tests, but swabs and chemicals used in the testing process are running low, he said.
Taneja, during a media briefing on Wednesday, referred questions about hospital capacity, overflow plans and availability of resources to individual hospitals and to emergency management offices. Hospitals have told the Star-Telegram that they have plans but have not been specific about them.
The county on Wednesday reported 288 COVID-19 cases, 18 recoveries and three deaths.
At least 40% of patients with confirmed coronavirus infection contracted the disease somewhere in the community. Taneja said that means it is likely there are at least 40% more cases unidentified, or about 155.
Nationally, there has been a rapid spike in cases. Dallas County on Wednesday reported 100 new cases.
Taneja said he was hopeful restrictions on social distance and stay-at-home orders would keep the spike lower in Tarrant County.
“The level of concern is increasing.” Taneja said, urging people to stay home.
The county doesn’t have enough data to know when hospitals will see a peak in cases, he said. Original projects for the state of Texas showed a peak in the outbreak in early April, but with community restrictions in place, that has been pushed back to late April or early May.
Dallas County, which has two drive-thru testing sites, has tested more people in Tarrant County. Taneja said he didn’t know how may total tests had been done in Tarrant County, but said he expects the rate of infection to be similiar across the metroplex.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 5:22 PM.
