Tarrant County expects to have its own coronavirus tests by next week
Though there have been no confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Tarrant County, the continued rise in those infected around the globe — and in the U.S. — has led local health officials to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus and prepare for its possible arrival.
By next week, the county health department hopes to have its own tests for the coronavirus, officials said during a conference call Wednesday morning.
The respiratory illness, which originated in Wuhan, China, spread to the U.S. in late January, and the Centers for Disease Control produced testing kits that were sent to state agencies across the U.S. But those tests turned out to be flawed, according to media reports. Specimens from possible coronavirus carriers had to be tested at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta.
Russ Jones, the chief epidemiologist for Tarrant County Public Health, said the county has monitored residents who travelled to China for the coronavirus. He didn’t say how many. The CDC has specified criteria for testing including recent travel to China or contact with someone known to have been infected.
The testing, Jones said, was “problematic.” Physicians had to wait for several days to a week to get results back.
But under mounting pressure, he said, the Food and Drug Administration granted state and local labs the ability to do their own testing, as well as released guidelines for private companies to produce their own tests.
“We hope to begin testing locally soon,” Jones said during the conference call with local partners and media. “We’re looking forward to that day when a physician can just order it and get the results sooner.”
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said in the call, “We expect that by next week, Tarrant County will be in a position to be able to do the testing locally.”
With more than 94,000 cases of the coronavirus around the world including more than 130 in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Tarrant County Public Health is treating the spread as a public health problem that needs to be combated.
The agency is adapting its pandemic influenza response plan for the coronavirus because there is “common ground” among the “viral properties” in the two viruses, according to Mark Fulmer, the preparedness planner. The response plan includes actions like ongoing monitoring of respiratory viruses in the county and encouraging residents to engage in “non-pharmaceutical intervention.”
That involves common-sense practices like maintaining personal hygiene, washing hands, properly covering a cough and staying home at the first sign of a sickness, Fulmer said.
“The plans address the need for educating our public regarding individual and community preparedness,” he said.
It’s unclear when this plan will be launched, though the Tarrant County Public Health website’s front page is dedicated to information on the coronavirus.
Richard Hill, a Tarrant County Public Health spokesman, said there are no plans for proactive testing of residents.
“We will test people who meet the case definition for testing,” he said.
What to know about the coronavirus
The coronavirus — which is actually a new strain of the existing coronavirus called COVID-19 — has caused varying symptoms in those who contract it, according to Jones.
In China, the epicenter of the outbreak, he said about 80 percent of patients have had mild cold-like symptoms or none at all, while the rest have had more severe pneumonia-like symptoms like fever, coughing and shortness of breath. Those people end up hospitalized.
Symptoms can develop between 2 to 14 days, according to the CDC. Jones said the disease can be spread by human-to-human contact like shaking hands and research indicates most transmissions occur through droplets produced when people cough.
As of Wednesday, there were 94,621 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 3,214 deaths in more than 75 countries, according to the data from Johns Hopkins University. The death rate is about 3.4 percent, compared to the 0.1 percent death rate of the flu.
The vast majority of cases — more than 80,000 — have been in China, followed by South Korea with more than 5,600 cases, Iran with more than 2,900 cases and Italy with more than 2,500 cases, data shows. There have been more than 100 confirmed cases in the U.S. and nine deaths, all of which occurred in Washington state.
In Texas, there have been 11 confirmed cases, but Jones said all of those individuals were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise where the virus spread. They have had to be quarantined at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio until they can complete 14 days without symptoms, he said. Some people have been released.
Jones said even with the rapid spread of the disease, there have been promising signs in China, where last week the nation had fewer new cases than the rest of the world. “That has continued through this week,” he said.
Tarrant County is ready to combat the illness, if it comes here, he said.
“(Coronavirus is) not in the community,” Jones said. “But this can rapidly change.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 1:23 PM.
