Coronavirus

COVID-19 test sites in Harris Co, Houston will remain open

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Officials fought to keep federal COVID-19 testing sites open

Gov. Abbott's announcement on Friday keeps federal testing sites open longer. Before that happened, local officials worked to keep them open. Here's Miya Shay's report from June 24.

AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) -- If you need a free COVID-19 test, you no longer have to worry about free testing sites closing down.

Previously, the federal government had announced they were withdrawing support from Harris County and Houston's large stadium-based test sites. But, on Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that federal funding had been secured to extend community-based test sites in Texas.

"These federally-supported testing sites are a vital component," said Abbott. "I thank our federal partners for extending these operations in Texas, and for their flexibility in allocating their resources to the communities of Dallas and Houston that are experiencing a high number of COVID-19 cases right now."

Since Memorial Day, the number of COVID-19 cases in Texas has increased. The state saw single-day records of cases three days in a row last week. To combat the spike in cases, Abbott ordered the closing of bars on Friday and scaled back restaurant capacity to 50 percent, after first deciding to reopen them in phases in May.

Harris County and Houston-area testing sites can be found on their websites.

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