SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE:
A spokesperson for Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed Tuesday morning that, as of Tuesday, 1,264 Texans had been tested for COVID-19.
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The spokesperson added that the figure will increase dramatically in the coming days. Abbott is expected to announce more details during a conference with Texas hospitals Tuesday.
See tests in Texas by day, or toggle over to see tests by state, in the embed below. The data is provided by The COVID Tracking Project.
ORIGINAL:
The number of people who have been tested in Texas for COVID-19 is a mystery as of Monday, three days after a statewide emergency over the new coronavirus was declared.
During a press conference in San Antonio on Monday afternoon, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that 200 Texans have been tested so far for COVID-19, the rapidly spreading respiratory disease that’s impacting the lives of Americans more each day.
“More than 200 Texans have been tested in either Texas public health labs or by the CDC. And we are currently testing 300 Texans for the possibility they may test positive for COVID-19,” said Abbott. He clarified that the 300 people that are being monitored for potential symptoms include the 200 Texans who’ve been tested.
It was a strikingly similar number to the one Abbott used Friday, when during his declaration of a statewide emergency he said 220 Texans have been tested for the virus so far. At that time, he said testing would rapidly ramp up across the state.
The similar figures were made more confusing by a statement he made minutes later.
“Understand this — the number’s changing every single day and so that is a moment in time number that I’ve given to you that will be different tomorrow," said Abbott.
So why didn’t the numbers change from Friday to Monday? And why have Abbott and other officials been unable or unwilling to provide figures on how many people have been tested and how many of those people tested are not first responders locally?
When asked by a KSAT reporter at the press conference, Abbott responded: “That number has not yet been updated. It’ll be updated at the end of today. And so that number likely will be increased by the end of the day.”
KSAT 12 reporter Garrett Brnger followed up: “We’ve only tested 200 people, so how do we know whether or not COVID-19 has spread widely?”
Abbott responded: “Sure. Here’s what you’re going to see over the coming week. And you’re going to see an exponential increase in the number of people who test positive on a daily basis. So people just need to be prepared and not shocked for the mathematical reality that once wide-scale testing is now being implemented there will be a lot more people who identify as testing positive for COVID-19."
Chris Tomlinson, a columnist at the Houston Chronicle, called the numbers “meaningless” in a tweet and said it shows the state has “no stinking idea how fast or how far COVID-19 has spread in Texas.”
Abbott has just revealed that we have no stinking idea how fast or how far #COVID19 has spread in Texas. The numbers are meaningless. https://t.co/ypqgL24Q97
— ChrisTomlinson (@cltomlinson) March 16, 2020
A spokeswoman for the governor did not immediately respond to a request from KSAT seeking clarification on the number of people tested in the state so far.
Still, Abbott was confident that more tests would be available soon.
“By the end of the week, everyone who needs a COVID-19 test will get a COVID-19 test,” Abbott said, adding that he believes more than 10,000 tests per week in the state could be a possibility by the end of the week.
This comes as people across the country, including in San Antonio, have expressed frustration over not being able to get tested and confusion over how the system is working.
Testing capacity is a key component of reducing the spread of the pandemic, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert at the National Institutes of Health, has called the national testing rollout a “failure” because of delays and problems.
During the press conference at the San Antonio Emergency Operations Center, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said an updated emergency declaration now prohibits the gathering of more than 50 people in the city limits.
At least three people in San Antonio have tested positive for COVID-19, not including the 12 evacuees at JBSA-Lackland.
Abbott said excluding evacuees at JBSA-Lackland and people being treated at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, there are now 57 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Texas across 15 counties.
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