Texas is facing a shortage of people willing to take coronavirus testing, after months of struggling to get people to take the tests.
Earlier during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, tests were not administered to everyone that required them due to shortage. Patients who showed mild symptoms or no symptoms were getting turned away, in order for the state testing facilities to focus on only people who had serious cases.
Now Texas has started recording fewer tests, as people start to shut testing centers. This month alone, the coronavirus tests have dropped by 9 percent from what they were at the end of July, a factor reflected across the US, which has seen a drop in the testing of the same magnitude.
Coronavirus testing drops in texas
Governor Greg Abbott confirmed the challenges doctors and nurses were having by acknowledging that the state was not getting enough people coming to get tested. The dwindling demand meant centers, such as CentroMed were no longer getting the record number of people that were making their way to the facility last month.
Texas has already seen its school reopen, with children and teachers preferring face to face classes. The schools are also returning back to school, with 170,000 students returning to their love of football after the reopening.
Texas has also seen congestion in hospitals due to reduced coronavirus infections. At its peak, Texas bed capacity had started to run low due to many infections that were being recorded and resulting in hospitalization. Since July, the state saw a 40 percent drop in hospitalization, with a mask mandate being implemented in major towns, including Houston where the mayor said there would be a fine for those not following the mandate.
The US has recorded over 5 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began resulting in over 170,000 fatalities. Since the start of the pandemic, testing has been a major issue on how to safely reopen institutions.
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