Governor Greg Abbott declares state of disaster for Texas as coronavirus cases increase

Mar. 13--AUSTIN -- Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster Friday over the coronavirus pandemic and announced that more tests will soon become available through measures like drive-through sites.

The disaster declaration encompasses all counties in Texas, and authorizes a wide breadth of responses, such as reallocating state resources and waiving state laws that hinder agencies' abilities to respond to the pandemic. Abbott's declaration came ahead of President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency.

"From the very start, the state of Texas anticipated the possibility of community spread of COVID-19," Abbott said at a press conference at the Texas Capitol. "This is not a death sentence we're dealing with here."

As of Friday afternoon, there are at least 50 cases of COVID-19 in Texas -- including those that have been repatriated and monitored at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The number of cases in Tarrant County rose to two, local officials announced.

Texas' public health labs have the capacity to test about 270 people per day, with the number expected to grow, Abbott said. As of Friday afternoon, 220 Texans have been tested in Texas public health labs or through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there are about 75 Texans "who are being tested as we speak," Abbott said.

Abbott declined to specify how many testing kits Texas has available, saying it's "a lot and growing exponentially."

He also announced that the state's first drive-through testing site opened Friday afternoon in San Antonio. It will initially be limited to testing certain high-risk patients, first responders, operators of critical infrastructure and health care workers. Abbott said it was too soon to estimate how many patients the drive-through would be able to handle each day.

Abbott's office is also working to open drive-throughs in Austin, Houston and Dallas.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council said Thursday that North Texas hospitals will be opening remote testing sites in an effort to keep potentially sick patients out of emergency rooms and doctor's offices.

Abbott also directed state agencies to restrict visitation at nursing homes, hospitals, day cares, state-sponsored living centers, jails, prisons and juvenile justice centers. There will be limited exceptions made for end-of-life visitations, and all visitors will be required to go through the proper screening measures.

John Hellerstedt, the Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner, said private labs' testing capabilities are "rapidly expanding," and said that Texans should contact their doctor to determine whether testing is suitable.

Hellerstedt said criteria to warrant testing includes individuals and health care workers who are showing symptoms, have risk factors, have had close contact with a confirmed case, have traveled to a location with ongoing coronavirus cases, or who are hospitalized with symptoms that COVID-19 exhibits, like fever.

"We don't recommend and we aren't able to test people who do not have symptoms," Hellerstedt said.

Stage agencies were also directed to take necessary steps to facilitate telemedicine and provide flexible policies to allow state employees to work from home if necessary. And Abbott applauded AT&T for announcing it will be waiving internet data usages for customers who don't have unlimited home internet access.

Abbott said additional directives will be issued in the coming days. Asked if he would take steps to limit movement throughout the state, Abbott said that it wasn't yet needed.

"Obviously, with the number of people who have tested positive in Texas right now, there's no reason for anything like that," Abbott said. "We will obviously adjust what our response is based on the number of people who test positive."

Thursday night, Dallas County officials announced the first North Texas case of community spread -- instances where people who have been infected do not know how or where they were exposed.

More than 20 governors have issued disaster proclamations or states of emergency over coronavirus concerns. Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley declared a state of disaster Friday afternoon.

Fort Worth area school districts will be closed until at least the end of the month, and Abbott said the state is seeking waivers to give school districts flexibility to provide students meals in the case of shutting down.

City and county officials in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas declared local states of disaster, canceling large events like the SXSW festival.

State officials had previously been tight-lipped about the number of tests conducted, and the Democratic Party of Texas pointed to the state's challenges to paid sick leave policies and failure to expand Medicaid as issues that made the state less prepared to handle a pandemic.

"While declaring a state disaster is a start, it's not nearly enough to solve the health care crisis in this state. We need to expand access to health care and create a system where those who are sick can get the testing they need to keep us all safe," Manny Garcia, the Texas Democratic Party's executive director, said in a statement.

Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat from Grand Prairie and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said that while he is glad to see the state's testing capabilities increase, expanding Medicaid "would have left our state better prepared and left health care providers better funded."

"I think the focus right now needs to be on how we expand our testing capacity, and make sure that our health care providers have the resources they need to respond," Turner said.

Abbott stressed that state officials began planning as early as January and this is "a constant step-up operation process." He urged Texans not to stockpile supplies.

"I want to assure the people of Texas that we're going to make it through this," Abbott said. "We've been through situations like this before. We made it through SARS, we made it through Ebola, we made it through H1N1 and we're going to make it through this together as well."

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