Fort Worth-area city will have drive-through testing site for the coronavirus
Burleson is opening a coronavirus drive-through testing site in the parking lot of the city’s recreation center.
Mayor Ken Shetter said that the center will be open at 9 a.m Tuesday morning, but people must make an appointment.
First responders and health care workers will get top priority, he said.
“There are a couple of things that prompted it. We’re thinking strategically about how to get control of our fate,” Shetter said. “We were relying on our county governments, which is a bit complicated because our city is in Tarrant and Johnson counties.”
The drive-through testing site is in the parking lot of the Burleson Recreation Center, also known as the BRiCK, at 550 NW Summercrest Blvd.
Burleson will provide the location and employees from the city’s human resources department will manage the testing site.
When the information about the site was posted on the city’s website, the city received around 50 calls in the first 20 minutes, he said.
The testing site is for Burleson and Johnson County residents, Shetter said. He said he felt it was necessary to establish a testing location because Johnson County does not have Tarrant County’s “medical infrastructure”.
In his Facebook post, Shetter emphasized that people will need to contact their physicians to determine if they should be tested. If the person does not have a physician, the resident should call 817-295-1121 to schedule a virtual visit for a test screening.
Shetter said that widespread testing will help define the scope of the coronavirus impact in Burleson. The city did not need to get clearance from the state or from Johnson and Tarrant counties, he said.
“We are taking control of our own destiny. Information from the state will flow directly to us. Part of our desire is to ease the burden on the county and on the state. We have the ability to do more for ourselves if we’re not working through so many channels,” Shetter said.
The city council also voted unanimously at Monday’s meeting to appoint Dr. Steve Martin as Burleson’s health official. Martin will receive information about coronavirus tests in Burleson and Johnson County.
Shetter said the timing is critical because as the curve goes up, testing and information about the tests will be critical.
Fire Chief K.T. Freeman said Martin is the health official for Burleson, not for Johnson County.
“When those persons are getting tests, we will know if they are city or county residents. We can flag the addresses in our system so that first responders will know if a person is under monitoring.”
Freeman told council members that firefighters went to people’s homes without the information that some residents have tested positive for the coronavirus.
If a person tests positive and lives in Johnson County, Martin can alert county officials, Freeman said.
“This is truly a big step in mitigating this disease,” Freeman said.
Martin said the current turnaround time for testing is one to two weeks. “The hope is to be able to turn around results in 72 hours,” Martin said.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 6:02 PM.