Hays County has been following CDC guidelines on who gets tested for COVID-19 – basically, health care providers, people in high-risk groups with symptoms and first responders.
As of Tuesday, May 5, results of 1961 tests had been reported to the County Health Department and of that, 183 were positive and 1,761 negative.
After weeks of uncertainty about the availability of tests for those populations, the county now has an excess, according to County Judge Ruben Becerra, who referred to tests “on the shelf.” But opening up access to people not in a high-risk group who have shown no symptoms took heat at an emergency meeting of the Commissioners Court on May 1 when Becerra suggested offering testing to local small businesses spooked about reopening.
