Young County sees low turnout for National Guard COVID-19 testing

Young County Arena was site to a COVID-19 mobile testing site hosted by the Texas National Guard on April 29, Young County had only 7 tests given with 60 available spots.

Young County was selected as a mobile testing site for April 29, where community members were able to receive a free COVID-19 test by appointment.

According to Young County Local Health Authority, Dr. Pat Martin, there were seven tests administered and he is unsure if the National Guard will come back at a later date.

“There were seven tests done that day (April 29), that will be added to our county total — it is already added to our county total,” Martin said in a Facebook Live on Friday. “I do not know if it will be a reoccurring thing.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the Texas National Guard at the end of March to assist communities with COVID-19 testing using mobile testing teams. They were activated to counties designated as hotspots or viewed as more rural. Graham City Manager, Brandon Anderson, explained that for Young County part of this could have been an effort to get more people tested so Texas could start opening up.

“I think that (the testing) was driven by the Governor’s order and just the simple fact that for us to safely reopen Texas we need to continue to test,” Anderson said. “It was an opportunity to offer another testing site. This wasn’t anyone local, they came in from the Wichita Falls area and did that. It was another opportunity.”

The tests were done through a partnership between the Texas Military Department, Texas Division of Emergency Management, Texas Emergency Medical Task Force and Texas Health and Human Services. Because these teams are activated by the Governor, it is unclear if or when they may come back for another round of testing.

“I know that they were assigned by various degrees, so they might be back here if we were to have a hot spot or something like that,” Graham Mayor, Neal Blanton said. “But right now we are not aware of that.”

Young County added one case in a week, and that case was a patient who lives in the Metroplex, according to Martin. They traveled to Olney to see a primary care doctor and was diagnosed with COVID-19. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, Young County has four confirmed cases with zero active.

Anderson said that if there is going to be another testing day, they will try to be better about informing the community.

“If it does come in (testing site), we will try to publicize it. I know there was a short turn around, but we did try to publicize it for two days,” Anderson said. “Continue to watch social media, if it does come up another opportunity we will get it out there.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the symptoms of COVID-19 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.