» Turner urges residents to get tested for virus ahead of storm.
Houston officials and public health experts are expressing concern that Tropical Storm Laura could amplify the spread of COVID-19 by displacing residents to public shelters or residences outside the area, increasing opportunities for transmission.
With that scenario in mind, Mayor Sylvester Turner on Sunday encouraged Houstonians to get tested for COVID-19 before the storm makes landfall. Forecasters have predicted it will come ashore late Wednesday or early Thursday, though the path remained uncertain by Monday evening.
Officials from Harris County and the American Red Cross began preparing for potential shelter needs months ago, County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Monday. At Red Cross shelters, officials will provide face coverings, conduct health screenings and follow federal social distancing guidance, the organization announced in a news release. It also will operate more shelters with a reduced capacity in each.
“This is not a situation where we would have the same kind of shelters we’re used to, where it’s completely open space and no division between folks,” Hidalgo said.
Turner, who urged people to get tested on Monday or Tuesday, tweeted, “You need to know your status for yourself, family members and friends.”
Turner spokeswoman Mary Benton said the mayor wants residents to know whether they are carrying COVID if they are forced to make evacuation plans.
“If it got to the point of evacuation or sheltering in public, we want to help people plan accordingly,” Benton said. “We’re trying to prepare, and even with a storm, we have to remember that the city is dealing with a pandemic.”
While some coastal cities have ordered or recommended residents evacuate, Turner and Hidalgo have yet to do so. Hidalgo said the pandemic will factor into whatever decision she makes.
“The other consideration is, you’re asking folks to leave, stay with friends and family,” she
said. “That is additional exposure. So, we’re thinking about all these things, weighing the risks.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, an immunologist at the Baylor College of Medicine, said that while disaster officials may come up with creative solutions to help contain the spread of COVID, public shelters would be “a nightmare even under the best circumstances.”
The effect may be especially pronounced, Hotez said, because those most likely to seek shelter in a public setting come from low-income communities where people are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID due to the prevalence of underlying health conditions.
It also would be difficult for contact tracers to follow the spread of the virus during an evacuation, he said.
“If you think about it, without a vaccine, what do we have? We have masks, we have contact tracing and social distancing — which are not great, but it’s all we have,” Hotez said. “With a hurricane, we’ve knocked out two of our three pieces of artillery equipment.”
Turner’s plea for residents to get tested came two days after he sounded the alarm over the drop in demand for COVID tests in Houston, a phenomenon seen in other parts of the country.
“I know people are tired of COVID-19. I am tired of COVID-19,” Turner said Friday. “But the reality is, the virus is still here. There are far too few people getting tested.”
In May and June, Turner said, demand for testing was so high “that the question was, what are the plans to increase capacity?
“Well, we have increased capacity, and there are testing sites all over,” Turner continued. “And as we have increased capacity, people have, literally, they stopped going to the testing sites.”
By late afternoon Monday, forecasters were projecting Tropical Storm Laura’s center would make landfall along the western Louisiana coast, though Houston and the upper Texas Gulf Coast remained under a hurricane watch.