COVID-19 Testing Urged as Virus Surge Continues

By Ashley Moss
Staff Writer 

There’s no shortage of COVID-19 tests in Dallas now, just folks willing to take them. 

“We have capacity to do (least) 2500 tests per day,” said Rocky Vaz, Director of Emergency Management for the City of Dallas. But he added, “We are utilizing less than 40 percent.” 

The latest news about local testing capacity comes as the numbers continue to rise across the region. More than 90,000 cases of the coronavirus have been recorded in Dallas County so far, including 510 cases recorded on October 20. The totals for confirmed and probable cases of  COVID-19 have risen each week for the past five weeks. 

“We are seeing a continual increase in the number of COVID-19 cases confirmed by testing each day and by the number of people that are showing up at our hospitals as the numbers,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. 

“We know what to do to curb the spread of coronavirus: masking and avoiding crowds, six-foot distance and hand washing. We just need to do it. As we’ve seen before and are about to see again, absent a drastic change in behavior, the numbers go up very rapidly but go down slowly,” he added. 

The latest state sponsored COVID-19 testing site for Dallas just opened up in the 75215 zip code at Salem Institutional Baptist Church and will remain open Monday through Saturday from 9 am-5 pm through October 30.  The test is conducted via cheek swab, a method considered less invasive, and there are no residency or citizenship requirements. 

“We’ll continue testing and are ready to open up additional sites (if needed),” said Vaz. 

Find a list of local testing sites here.