The latest meeting of Hillsborough County’s Emergency Policy Group (EPG) just wrapped, and the big takeaway is that anyone who wants a COVID-19 test is now supposed to be able to get one—with or without symptoms.
On Monday afternoon, Dr. Charles Lockwood, dean of the University of South Florida’s Morsani College of Medicine, told the EPG that between 500-700 tests are being completed daily. The county—which runs testing sites at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, East Tampa’s Lee Davis Center, Ruskin’s SouthShore Community Center, and the Plant City Community Resource Center—has a daily test capacity of 4,000.
Hillsborough County’s Emergency Management Director Tim Dudley told the group that the county had more than 7,500 test kits on hand for its four sites.
County Administrator Mike Merrill said the county has been pushing the message about testing daily, but not getting the response it’s looking for. He said that a survey—made public on April 23—asks why people aren’t coming and that Hillsborough County can address the message and delivery when results come in.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Kimberly Overman countered that the county has not been clear about who can and cannot get tested.
On March 26, the county sent a news release saying that testing at the Raymond James Stadium drive-thru site was closing on March 27, two days after it opened. On March 30, Hillsborough announced that the site was re-opening but that pre-screening and pre-registration was required.
We’ll update this post with any new testing procedures from the county—especially since hospitals and private testing sites may have different testing policies—but Dudley told the EPG that, “We’re not turning anyone down. We’re open for business.”
Ramping up testing and contract tracing is paramount if the EPG wants to reopen Hillsborough County and scale back its safer-at-home order.
The Tampa Bay Times says Hillsborough County “would need to test about 2,250 people a day to safely reopen.”
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This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2020.