FORT WORTH -- People will be able to get tested for COVID-19 seven days a week at three separate contracted sites in Tarran County starting Wednesday, health officials say.
All three sites, listed below, will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. 5 p.m. on weekends. They will be closed New Year's Day.
Ben Thanh Market, 1818 E. Pioneer Pkwy. Ste. 100, Arlington
Northeast Annex, 837 Brown Trail, Bedford
Resource Connection (parking lot D), 1500 Circle Dr., Fort Worth
Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja said with New Year's gatherings coming up amid the rapid spread of the omicron variant, it's important that people -- including those fully vaccinated and boosted -- get tested.
"You can't self-diagnose at home," Taneja said. "You don't know the symptoms, (they) all kind of look the same. So there's plenty of testing available in Tarrant County, all across public-sector testing and private testing."
The five TCPH brick-and-mortar locations will offer testing on weekdays from 8 a.m. 4:30 p.m. Their locations are below.
Arlington Adult Health Services, 2596 E. Arkansas Ln., Arlington
Bagsby-Williams Public Health Clinic, 3212 Miller Ave., Fort Worth
Northwest Public Health Center, 3800 Adam Grubb Rd., Fort Worth
Southwest Public Health Clinic, 6551 Granbury Rd., Fort Worth
Watauga Public Health Center, 6601 Watauga Rd., Watauga
Click here for up-to-the-minute schedules.
Taneja said the testing sites have been very busy, and a good portion of the tests are coming back positive.
"We're above the 20% mark on certain sites," he said.
As such, the county's spread level is being upgraded once again.
"We're going back up to high level of community spread today, because there's the data that came in on the weekend," Taneja said. "I mean, it's obvious to us that the numbers are going higher."
With that, hospitals are starting to fill up again.
"We have about 10.5% percent of our hospital capacity consumed. That's about 407 people in the hospital," Taneja said. "And then, of course, pediatric numbers are rising as well. There's about 15 kids in the hospital."
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