YCA hosts National Guard COVID-19 testing

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the Texas National Guard on April 20 to assist communities with COVID-19 testing using mobile testing teams, specifically those counties designated as hotspots or viewed as more rural. Young County was selected as a mobile testing site for April 29, where community members can receive a free COVID-19 test by appointment if they have one or more of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) symptoms.

The partnership between the Texas Military Department, Texas Division of Emergency Management, Texas Emergency Medical Task Force and Texas Health and Human Services will involve 45 member teams that will be deployed throughout the state.

Local leaders from the city of Graham and Young County have been discussing if this was something that they wanted to pursue, with the benefit being an additional 60 tests being able to be performed in one day.

“We talked around about that for a good bit, we thought we were doing pretty good, but Friday, subsequent to our Facebook Live session, we had a discussion over there, the city of Graham decided they might want to host that  — would host that,” Young County Judge John Bullock said. “So we put that in action and we are going to have a mobile testing team at Young County Arena on Wednesday (April 29). They just released all that information today.”

Young County Arena will host the mobile testing from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. by appointment only and can perform up to 60 tests, according to a press release. Community members will be screened if they have one or more of the CDC symptoms of the novel coronavirus. The CDC expanded the symptom list to include some symptoms that people are now experiencing and have tested positive for the virus.

These symptoms are fever, cough (dry or productive), fatigue, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle aches, headache, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, nasal congestion or loss of taste or smell.

The medical team will be conducting the testing, the only thing the city is doing is furnishing the site.

“They would be out in guard uniform, I can imagine,” Judge Bullock said. “They are unarmed, they don’t have any weapons or anything like that.”

To register for a test visit txcovidtest.org or call 512-883-2400.