Coronavirus: 1 In 5 Test Positive At Austin Screening Sites

AUSTIN, TX — One in five people screened for coronavirus at testing sites operated at Central Health-affiliated testing sites tested positive for the respiratory illness, officials said on Thursday.

According to data from the CommUnityCare Health Centers, one in five tests administered at its drive-through testing sites — and within its health centers over the last two weeks from April 26 through May 9 —came back positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said.

With the exception of last week, officials said CommUnityCare has consistently seen a week-over-week increase in positive cases since initiating coronavirus testing in mid-March — even amid expanded testing in the region. Last week, officials said positive results decreased to 10.06 percent from a high of 21.41 percent the week prior.

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Additionally, CommUnityCare analysis shows 412 of the 1,679 Latinos tested since mid-March have tested positive — a cumulative positivity rate of 24.55 percent. This compares to a cumulative positivity rate of 7.32 percent for non-Latinos and 11.23 percent for those who did not report their ethnicity.

“These are worrisome trends,” CommUnityCare CEO Jaeson Fournier said in a prepared statement. “The reason for higher positivity rates among Latinos we’ve tested could be both cultural and socio-economic — families living together in multigenerational households and people paid hourly who are unable to work from home. CommUnityCare is committed to making testing accessible to everyone, especially communities that are clearly disproportionately affected by COVID-19."

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Overall CommUnityCare’s testing sites have administered 3,593 tests, a portion of which are still pending results, according to th data. The overall positivity rate for returned tests is 16.89 percent, which is higher than Travis County’s positivity rate of 13.6 percent and more than double the state’s positivity rate of 7.8 percent, based on data from the Texas Department of State Health Services dashboard as of May 6.

The grim statistics point to the needs in providing testing, public awareness and new ways to access care, Central Health President and CEO Mike Geeslin noted: “This pandemic has placed communities of color at even greater risk, and the Central Health enterprise partners will respond,” Geeslin said. “There is more work to do, and we’re going to continue reaching out to these communities and supporting CommUnity Care’s efforts.”

Yet amid the sobering statistics from CommUnityCare emerged some hopeful signs: Illness positivity rates for African Americans has declined since the week of March 29, officials said.

In March, CommUnityCare opened the first public COVID-19 testing sites in the Austin area that do not require a doctor’s referral or an appointment, offering tests provided free of charge for those who are uninsured. To that end, anyone can walk up or get tested while remaining in their vehicles. Almost 57 percent of all tests to date have been for non-CommUnityCare patients, and non-patients make up nearly 60 percent of all positive results returned, officials noted.

Added CommUnityCare Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alan Schalsha: “Testing is one of the most important ways to flatten the curve, which is why we are not just testing our own patients. It’s encouraging to see more and more people come to us get tested. If they know they’re positive, they can take proper precautions to protect their families, friends and community at large.”

Officials noted CommUnityCare and Central Health continue to collect and analyze data regularly and are sharing the data with Austin Public Health and other health authorities to track larger community trends over time. CommUnityCare is also joining Austin Public Health and Dell Medical School’s UT Health Austin to perform contact tracing — identifying everyone an infected person may have exposed — to help reduce further spread of the disease.

CommUnityCare operates seven public drive-up testing sites: Hancock Center in Austin; Austin’s Colony/Hornsby Bend; Colony Park; Del Valle; Dove Springs; Manor; and Pflugerville. The testing sites are open on a rotating schedule, Monday through Saturday. Medical experts at each location screen everyone for symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of whether they are a CommUnityCare patient. If a person meets certain criteria, they are tested.

CommUnityCare Testing By the Numbers

For all tests conducted from March 15 - May 9 as analyzed on May 11

• Seven drive-up testing sites
• 3,593 tests administered, with 536 positives for COVID-19 and 403 results still pending as of May 11.
  • 57 percent of tests administered for non-CommUnityCare patients
• 16.89 percent overall positivity rate (number of positive results out of the total number of tests returned)
• Positivity rate by ethnicity (number of positive results out of the total number of tests returned for that ethnic group)
  • 24.5 percent Latino positivity rate (412 out of 1,679).
    • CommUnityCare Latino patient’s positivity: 21.60 percent
    • Non-CommUnityCare Latino patient’s positivity: 27.47 percent
  • 7.32 percent non-Latino positivity rate (82 out of 1,120)
    • 11.23 percent for those who did not report their ethnicity

About Central Health

Central Health is the local public agency that connects Travis County residents with low income to quality health care. We work with a network of partners to eliminate health disparities and reach our vision of Travis County becoming a model healthy community.

About CommUnityCare

CommUnityCare’s vision is to improve the health of the community by increasing access to the best care possible. Today, CommUnityCare provides services at 25 locations in Travis County. Each year, its health centers provide approximately 360,000 medical and dental patient appointments representing more than 98,000 individual patients.