Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins says a contract with a company running COVID-19 testing sites will not be renewed. The City of Dallas and Dallas County reached a joint contract with the company, Honu Management Group, in July for $14.6 million.
The company has been running testing sites in Mesquite and Irving. The City of Dallas says the site at Dallas College Eastfield Campus in Mesquite had previously been relocated out of the city.
Jenkins says some samples taken at Eastfield Campus in Mesquite did not arrive at a lab in Austin for several days.
"The most galling part of that is it was taking over three and a half days for the test, on average, to make it to Austin," Jenkins says. "You could take it on a bicycle in three and a half days."
An internal investigation by Dallas County showed 40% of people tested in Mesquite waited more than a week for results; 15% of people waited more than a week after being tested in Irving.
Jenkins says those delays would prevent contact tracing and could lead to the spread of COVID-19.
"It's obviously very critical that people get their tests back very quickly because everyone has been told for months: Stay home, wear a mask, don't touch anything while you're waiting for your results," he says.
The contract with Honu is scheduled to run through August 28. Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price says he will introduce a measure at the meeting Tuesday morning to stop paying invoices.
Parkland Hospital will take over testing in Irving and Mesquite, Jenkins says.
