Last updated on March 23, 2020
Via Rockwall County Office of Emergency Management:
Here is an update on COVID-19 around Texas. First off, we have no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Rockwall County!!! As of yesterday afternoon, there were 68 cases in Texas. The concern right now is that this number is going to continue to grow and that it will grow from community spread. Community spread means the patient who has COVID caught it and didn’t travel. There are four counties with community spread in Texas. Those counties are Brazoria, Matagorda, Montgomery, and Dallas.
So let’s talk about what we’re doing and what you can do. Rockwall County has been working for a few weeks now to make sure that we can ensure the safety of our employees and our citizens who come to the county facilities. For example, is our facilities guru Barry now has an electrostatic sanitizer and has been sanitizing as much as he can.
Here’s what we need from each of our fine citizens. Please try to distance yourself from other people as much as you can right now. That will help us slow the spread of this virus when it comes to Rockwall County. People who are at high risk because of age or chronic illness will thank you.
Testing people for the disease is still tricky, and the Texas Department of State Health Services is in charge of testing. The state labs can process 275 test kits per day. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but private labs are starting to process kits, and we will be able to test more and more people every day. For right now the criteria to get tested are:
– Have Symptoms and have close contact with a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patient.
-Symptoms and travel to China in the last 14 days.
These criteria are from the Texas Department of State Health Services. If you would like to be tested, contact your primary care provider. If you cannot reach your primary care provider, call your local ER.
When we have more information we will post it here or send a Nixle Emergency Alert. You can sign up for our Nixle by texting “RCOEM” to 888777.
