Coronavirus: Texas Fire Crews Help With Nursing Home Testing

AUSTIN, TX — Local fire departments across Texas are teaming up with local public health authroities in providing testing for coronavirus in nursing homes across the state, officials announced on Friday.

The effort was revealed by Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The partnership was developed and is being implemented through an ongoing collaboration among the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Texas Commission on Fire Protection, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Department of State Health Services, officials said.

Costs associated with providing these tests are eligible for federal reimbursement, officials noted.

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"This partnership builds upon our efforts to expand COVID-19 in the Lone Star State, especially among our most vulnerable Texans," Abbott said in a prepared statement. "I thank our local fire departments for continuing to serve their fellow Texans throughout the COVID-19 response. By serving their communities in this new capacity, we will continue to contain the spread of this virus and protect the health and safety of all Texans."

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The development comes days after the governor tasked state agencies with more bolstered testing of residents and staff in the state's nursing homes — sites that are increasingly seen as hotbeds for illness clusters. Such was the case in Williamson County just outside Austin, Texas, where health officials revealed the emergence of an illness cluster on April 25 at an unspecified nursing home where 46 people tested positive for coronavirus.

The cluster later was identified as the source for a subsequent 51-case jump in the local illness rate tallies tabulated by health officials — the biggest, single-day jump seen in the county of some 600,000 residents.