Thousands of COVID-19 tests may soon be available in Hays County through the county health department for “frontline professionals” including medical personnel and first responders.
This announcement comes just in time, as the county is making some tough decisions regarding emergency operations. All that and more was announced in Tuesday’s meeting of the Hays County Commissioners Court as a back-and-forth argument raged between County Judge Ruben Becerra and Pct. 4 Commissioner Walt Smith over the deal Becerra struck with MDBox.
As of Tuesday morning, the county had seen 28 confirmed cases of the virus. Six people have recovered, meaning there are 22 cases still “active,” the county’s Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Villalobos said.
He said when the count reaches 30 cases, it will be time to start looking at activating an Emergency Operations Center and gauging the capacity of available resources for meeting a surge.
All that will need to be done, he said, even as “people with specific skill sets” are “being pulled away to other counties and other jurisdictions” and multiple requests for resources like masks, sanitizers, gowns, and gloves “have been put on hold.”
“We’re making an educated guess at what our response should be. We don’t have enough data coming back to pinpoint what we need,” Villalobos said.
He said that there’s “very little testing going on” in the county at present, but he predicted numbers will “increase exponentially” once more tests become available.
Becerra said his deal, which he held “close to his chest” until finalized, would help to meet the need.
“Yesterday I purchased the first 2,000 tests for frontline medical personnel, first respondents and people with symptoms,” he said. People will need a medical diagnosis before they can receive a test, and results should be available in a matter of minutes.
That, Becerra said, will help officials “pinpoint community spread” and “break the chains of transmission.”
Then, Becerra accused Smith of putting access to those tests “in jeopardy” by attempting “to derail an agreement with a supplier,” something he called “irresponsible and reckless with no regard for human life. While his obstruction was not ultimately successful, it cost medical professionals and the people of Hays County precious time.”
“Some of the activity behind the scenes I think are criminal,” Becerra said, “and I won’t discuss them.”
“I certainly hope those don’t prove to be the case.” Smith replied. “I will tell you today this accusation you leveled toward me, not only will it not stand, it will be answered very stringently.”
Smith maintained all he did was “pick up the phone” to call “one of the organizations referenced” and ask if there was an agreement in place, which he said they denied. He said he then called Villalobos, who he said denied knowledge of the deal.
Smith then began to ask Becerra about comments he apparently made on his personal Facebook page concerning the tests in which he reportedly said the tests would be available at H-E-B online. “Are they
available today?” Smith asked. Becerra refused to discuss it.
“I have secured thousands of tests for our health department to manage,” Becerra said. I will not answer to what the private sector is saying. I will not answer to what the private sector is doing.”
Smith went on to say he agreed with a lot of what Becerra has done in responding to the crisis, “but for you to make the statement you made today, for you to do what you did yesterday going out to the public promising something without us knowing how it’s going to be set up is dumbfounding to me. I will not play with people’s health.”
Lon Shell, commissioner for Pct. 3, directed his comments above the fray.
“I encourage everyone to stay safe,” he said. “This is an important time in the process. It is a bit eerie seeing the streets as empty as they are but it’s a good thing for safety. Businesses are struggling. I know everybody is doing the best they can. There are people that are going to be struggling for some time. It’s challenging for many people across the county.”
Concerning the masks themselves, Reliant Immune Diagnostics said in an email dated March 27 that “all Hays County community members would have access to www.mdbox.com mobile application and have the ability to purchase these in-home
COVID-19 tests at partner retail locations.”
In Hays County, the number of active cases doubled within a week.
