The two federal sites
tested 28,000 people in June. The sites started testing 250 people per day but
now test about 600 people a day. But those test kits are sent to out-of-state
labs, resulting in a slower turnaround for results, said Phillip Huang, the
Dallas County public health director.
By Alex
Rozier – WFAA Jun 30, 2020, 9:01am CDT Updated 58 minutes ago
This story is available as part of a content partnership with
WFAA-TV. For more local news, visit WFAA.com.
Dallas
County leaders say private labs are returning coronavirus test results in a
little more than three days, but the free, federally-funded sites, including at
the American Airlines Center, take an average of eight days to return results.
Tarrant
County does not have any federally-funded testing sites, but it takes an
average of six days to return coronavirus test results in the county.
“The
demand is very high,” said Tarrant County Director of Public Health Vinny Taneja. “It’s unfortunate that we’re in
this situation, but we just have to be patient and hopefully we’ll get our
results soon.”
Quest
Diagnostics reported its labs ran about 400,000 coronavirus tests in March. This
month, the lab has run 5.3 million tests.
Testing
in the city of Dallas has ramped up dramatically too.
The two
federal sites tested 28,000 people in June. The sites started testing 250
people per day but now test about 600 people a day.
But
those test kits are sent to out-of-state labs, resulting in a slower turnaround
for results, said Phillip Huang, the Dallas County public health
director.
Kenneth Leu had an unusually long wait
time. He went to an urgent care clinic with insurance and was informed 10 days
later that they were unable to process the test. His 10-day wait is far above
the average of 3.3 days for results.
Leu
said he went on June 18 and was told it would take three to five days to get
results.
He got
a call Sunday saying that his test couldn't be processed.
"I've
been quarantined for two weeks," Leu said. "I don't even know if I
have it or not."
The
Dallas County health director urges people to be patient.
“Anyone
who has symptoms should absolutely stay home, isolate, assume that you have
it,” Huang said. “If it’s 10 days after the start of your symptoms and at least
three days after your symptoms have resolved, with no fever, without taking any
fever-reducing medications, then you can then go back to work and feel safe.”
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