More testing a must

Study finds the U.S. needs 20 million a day to fully reopen the economy by late July.

The coronavirus outbreak continues to grow in Texas, with the latest numbers topping 20,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 500 deaths. Along with that steady uptick, the pressure to ease social distancing restrictions and restart the economy has been mounting as well, and Gov. Greg Abbott is starting to buckle.

Last week, Abbott extended school closures through the end of the academic year but said that starting this week, state parks are open, retailers may begin drive-up sales and doctors can resume some surgeries and other medical procedures.

He also announced a new advisory team — led by Austin banker James Huffines and conservative lobbyist Mike Toomey — to work on the reopening, a priority for President Donald Trump.

“In opening Texas, we must be guided by data and doctors,” Abbott said. “We must put health and safety first. We must prioritize protecting our most vulnerable populations.”

We agree with the governor’s measured tone. We agree there is a pressing, even desperate, need for Texans to get back to work. But we hope Abbott listens to his own words. If he pays attention to the doctors, if he examines the data, two things will become clear:

Texas needs more testing. We are frighteningly behind.

The state hovers near the bottom of testing per capita, the Chronicle found, with rural areas being particularly shortchanged. While the governor announced Monday that the National Guard will expand the number of mobile testing centers and that more testing is coming, earlier this month he dismissed that gap, saying that testing was “helpful,” but it was not a solution.

In fact, no solution is possible without it. A lack of adequate testing gives us an incomplete picture of the virus’ presence in the state, hindering strategies to actively combat the spread.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, no stranger to natural disasters, compared the situation with one he’s seen before.

“We knew where the storm was, when it was going to hit and when it was going to leave,” Turner said at a press conference Saturday. “What’s our radar when it comes to this virus? That happens to be the testing.”

A road map to pandemic resilience issued Monday by the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University found the United States needs 5 million tests per day by early June for a safe social reopening. By late July, that number should be closer to 20 million a day to fully re-mobilize the economy.

Yes, 20 million tests a day. Based on Harvard’s numbers, a region the size of Harris County would need to perform about 280,000 tests per day by midsummer. In the entire month since testing began, Harris County has administered only 19,496, according to the Department of State Health Services.

Things are improving but at this achingly slow rate, Texas won’t be safe to reopen for several months.

Speaking outside Delmar Stadium on Saturday, the site of one of the two COVID-19 testing sites run by the Houston Health Department, Turner shared that the number of tests available to Houstonians increased last week, from 250 tests per day at each site to 500, and testing was now open to everyone, regardless of symptoms.

“Each one of these test sites could handle 2,000 tests a day,” Turner said, adding that more testing sites need to be opened to reach the widespread levels necessary.

Indeed, as he spoke around midday, both city sites had already reached capacity — several hours short of their 7 p.m. closing time.

The county also expanded testing capacity, including through two mobile testing locations, to 1,200 tests a day. Harris County Public Health is still limiting testing to those screened through an online health assessment tool. Two Walgreens locations have started offering drive-through testing, with results in 24 hours. Officials said they can process about 140 tests a day.

So what’s the holdup on testing? Mainly, the lack of supplies required to conduct them. Swabs. Chemicals needed to process results. This shortage has persisted for more than a month, even as President Trump has consistently claimed there are enough tests for everyone.

Governors from red and blue states alike have pushed back enough that the president finally agreed Sunday to use the Defense Production Act to increase production of test swabs by over 20 million per month. Details remain sketchy, but this is a welcome move, one that should have been made weeks ago.

Any leader making big plans to reopen the economy needs to have the testing capacity to back it up. We must have the tools — accurate, widely available, timely tests — to identify who is infected, who is at risk of spreading the virus and who needs to be isolated. Otherwise, officials are just rolling the dice and gambling with people’s lives.