Nueces County still does not have a confirmed case of COVID-19 as of Friday, said Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni.
Zanoni and Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District Asst. Director Dante Gonzalez said the local health district has had 60-70 samples tested for COVID-19 since January.
Samples currently are being sent to Austin for testing, and private labs statewide have performed around 1,000 tests.
"Once the CDC authorized the Austin Health District to perform the tests, we switched because they can do them faster," Zanoni said. "It is a city/county operation, as is ours."
Zanoni said there are only about 10 testing labs in Texas, and tests will be performed locally by next week once it is certified.
He and Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb also provided a few other updates:
- Corpus Christi City Hall staff will be reduced to only its essential personnel
- a site has been selected from four possible to use as a second mobile COVID-19 testing location
- a fifth call ball bank has been added to the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District's call center, which means there are now 50 people available to take calls from those who think they may have COVID-19