Tests wrap up at Arlington retirement center where man died of coronavirus; 5 cases found
Work to test more than 250 people at the Texas Masonic Retirement Center in Arlington, where the first Tarrant County resident died from COVID-19, has wrapped up, Tarrant health officials announced this week.
Five positive cases were found there last month and no more positive cases have been found since, Tarrant Public Health Director Vinny Taneja said Tuesday.
“There are no more cases,” Taneja said, adding that the control order at the center was lifted late Saturday night. “So it’s back to normal. If anything else happens again, we will be back there again.
“But I hope not because the situation is over with right now.”
Patrick James, a resident at the center who thought he had the flu, died March 16. His family found out March 17 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He had been diagnosed with double pneumonia after being hospitalized.
After James died, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visited Arlington and said tests would be run on all staff and residents at the retirement center.
At the same time, visitors were limited to the center and movement was limited within the center.
Overall, 263 people at the center were tested for coronavirus by a team of workers from the Arlington Fire Department, Texas Department of State Health Services and the Tarrant County Public Health department.
“This was truly a team effort,” Taneja said in a statement this week. “Thanks to the Joint Response Team, we were able to conduct all the necessary testing and help mitigate the potential spread of the virus among a very vulnerable population.”
