Local authorities take over coronavirus testing from the federal government of Dallas County, Jenkins said

Updated at 9pm: Revised to include the statement of Mayor Eric Johnson Dallas.

Dallas County has ended an agreement with the federal government this week and envisions nearly complete control of publicly funded coronavirus testing to provide faster results, Judge Clay Jenkins announced on Twitter.

The shift comes after Chairman John Wiley Price Raised concerns on Friday The results of the tests provided by the federal government took very long-up to 2 weeks.

Price also suggested that the city and county built an unequal system this month as Honu, a private company hired to conduct tests at the University of Dallas.

Private labs provide results in about two days in the northern half of the county, while labs commissioned by the federal government to perform operations at a test center at Ellis Davis Fieldhouse in the Redbird area are close to two weeks. It depends.

Jenkins agreed with Price.

“We have to do the right thing for the people of Dallas,” he said on Monday. “Thanks to federal career politicians. But 8-10 days is too long.”

Jenkins says federal exams at Ellis Davis Fieldhouse will end Wednesday, and the city and county will work with Parkland Health and Hospital Systems to work quickly to find another vendor to run the exam. Said. Meanwhile, Parkland conducts up to 500 tests daily at Ellis Davis Fieldhouse.

Mr Jenkins said the new contract would be paid in local taxes, but he wanted the federal government to reimburse some of the costs, as in a public disaster.

The Honu deal for the University of Dallas site in Irving is valued at $20 million and is paid for with federal funding that Congress sent to the local government as part of the Coronavirus rescue package.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said community-based test sites were critical during the pandemic, but maintaining status quo is not the best interest of the community.

“We continue to welcome the support of the federal government in other areas of responding to this national crisis,” Johnson said.

For months, Jenkins has been clamoring for faster tests and has been informally petitioning governments for the chemicals needed to run tests locally. Health officials estimate that the county can provide thousands of tests per day at Parkland and UT Southwestern Medical Centers if the supplies are provided.

State and local officials also had to repeatedly petition Washington to expand the federal dollar in favor of major test sites.

Greg Gabbot will be on Sunday at the US Department of Health and Human Services Expanding funding for Dallas community-based test site, Houston, as well as three, until the end of July.

Trump administration 2 weeks extension allowed Five Texas sites in late June overturned their previous decision to end funding.

Texas state legislators, including Republican Senators John Corning, Ted Cruz, Democrats, Colin Allred, and Eddie Bernice Johnson, wrote to HHS Secretary Alex Hazard and FEMA Administrator Pete Gainer. Wrote Request to increase funding for the site Hospitalization and positivity rates continued to rise as new cases of coronavirus in the state.

Federal funding of Dallas site It was also set to expire on April 10th and the end of May But it was extended to both times.

Demand diagnostics for the COVID-19 test continue to grow, the Institute’s Quest Diagnostics reported Monday.

The company said in a news release that it will take more than a day for the highest-priority patient to receive the results, but for all others it will take more than a week.

According to the company, it’s almost double the capacity from eight weeks ago (currently 125,000 tests), but demand is growing even higher. The problem is occurring across the lab industry, officials said.

In Dallas, a new walk-up test site in Pleasant Grove was scheduled to open on Monday, Test equipment and equipment stolen overnightCaused delays, officials said.

The Salvation Army Pleasant Grove Core Community Center site, 3411 Elam Road, opens Tuesday at 7:30 am. Runs Monday through Saturday, 7:30 am to 5 pm, or until testing capacity for that day is met.

Testing is an important strategy Overwhelm hospitals and health agencies in controlling the coronavirus that is rampaging in Texas and other states.

New Dallas County Incident, Death

According to Jenkins, the spread of the virus in the community is still widespread and Dallas County reported 1,114 new cases of coronavirus on Monday.

County officials also reported 6 deaths from COVID-19, a disease caused by the virus.

The victims include four men from Dallas. One is in their 50s, two are in their 60s, and the other is in their 70s. A Desoto male in the 70’s and a Mesquite female in the 90’s who were residents of a nursing home also died at COVID-19.

According to the latest figures, the county had 34,914 confirmed cases, about 13.2 per 1,000 and 457 deaths. County has not reported recovery..

New data on hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and intensive care hospitalizations will be available Tuesday for a weekend report, health officials said.

Last week, the county saw a mountaineering admission and recorded an emergency room visit. Authorities reported on Thursday that there were 757 emergency room visits for COVID-19 symptoms in Dallas County, accounting for more than one-third of all visits. There were 809 people who were hospitalized for the virus.

Jenkins said in a written statement that there is a “widespread community spread” of the coronavirus.

“It’s been more than four months since we reported our first case in Dallas County. Even if that means our “new normal,” everyone is ready to find any sense of normality. I know that he is there,” he said.

However, he said, people were more likely to come into contact with the virus than they were when the county’s home order was in place.

Tarrant County

Tarrant County reported more than 322 COVID-19 cases on Monday, with no new deaths from the virus.

At COVID-19, 626 people were hospitalized and a total of 272 people died.

There are 18,483 cases in Tarrant County, or about 8.8 cases per 1,000 people. The county says 8,735 patients have recovered.

Colin County

Colin county officials reported two new coronavirus deaths and 152 new cases on Monday.

No additional information on the latest victims was available.

In the county, there were a total of 4,685 deaths, or about 4.5 per 1,000 inhabitants, or 58 deaths.

Authorities say 174 were hospitalized at COVID-19 and 3,681 recovered.

Denton County

Denton County officials announced 113 new cases of coronavirus on Monday.

The county saw 40 deaths from COVID-19 and 4,162 confirmed cases-about 4.7 per 1,000 inhabitants.

On Monday, 91 people were hospitalized with the virus and 1,730 recovered, according to county data.

Other counties

The Texas Department of Health has continued to report coronavirus cases in several counties in North Texas and may not report daily updated totals.

The latest numbers are:

• Rockwall County: 467 cases, 17 dead.
• Kaufman County: 971, 5 dead.
• Ellis County: 1,637 cases, 20 dead.
• Johnson County: 788 cases, 4 dead.

Staff writer Ally Morris contributed to this report.