Fort Bend County – Fort Bend County is the latest Houston-area community to launch a drive-thru COVID-19 mega testing site.
Leaders say the site is a necessity, citing “the exponential increase” in demand by residents for COVID testing because of the rapid spread of the omicron variant.
KPRC 2 spoke to the county’s top medical official health and human services director, Dr. Jacquelyn Johnson-Minter.
“What we’ve seen is longer wait times, longer times for people to get results, and harder times for people to get appointments,” Johnson-Minter said.
The testing site will be at Brazos River Park. The location is near the Smart Financial Centre which the county has previously used for COVID testing.
“It’s central to a lot of the residents in the county, easy access on and off,” she said. “And, we’ve had a good partnership, city/county partnership with Sugar Land. So, it’s made it easy.”
While Fort Bend gets ready to ramp up its first mega-site, the Houston Health Department continues to see steady demand at its five mega testing sites.
As concerns rise across the Houston area, health officials encourage testing but also vaccines.
“The early data is showing us that the symptoms may be milder for sure,” said Johnson-Minter. “That there definitely looks like there’s going to be less impact as far as a long-term disease in the hospital.”
The Houston Health Department plans to open its sixth mega testing site, but has not finalized a location.