The above video is from a story on coronavirus testing at Kroger.
Local leaders are negotiating with federal officials to continue operating the two free drive-up coronavirus testing sites past the end of May.
There are 1,000 tests performed daily at the American Airlines Center and the Ellis Davis Field House. The federal agreement to offer those tests expires May 31.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson have both said this week that they want to see that agreement extended.
"I am not interested in finger-pointing or playing the blame game in testing availability," Johnson said Tuesday.
But, he said, there needs to be more testing. City officials would like to see as many as 4,000 people tested a day.
Johnson also named Dr. Kelvin Baggett as the new COVID-19 Health and Healthcare Access Czar. His role includes assessing and leading efforts to increase testing and contact tracing and promoting health measures, especially in underserved communities.
National data has shown broad disparities by race, ethnicity, income, and other factors in COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates, the city said in a statement.
“While this disease has pushed us away from each other physically, we cannot let it tear us apart and deepen the divide in our city between the haves and have-nots,” Johnson said.
On Monday, Jenkins announced seven new testing sites at Walmart and Kroger stores. But those locations can only accommodate 50 COVID-19 tests daily.
City leaders said there are currently about 800 tests performed
Jenkins said there’s talk that Abbott's “surge forces” to test large numbers of people will visit all four large counties in North Texas for two days in each place — focusing on ZIP codes where there are the most COVID-19 cases.
Dallas County Health Director Dr. Phillip Huang said at the news conference the positive infection rate at hospitals was 9.4% on May 2. Anything below 10% is good. But the feds say a sustained 14-day decline is necessary for reopening. The rate had been 13-14%.
Threat level chart
This week Jenkins also debuted a new threat level map to decide when it's safe to re-open.
Red means stay home if you can.
Orange means use extreme caution. You can dine out, but do so cautiously.
Yellow means proceed carefully. You can take a vacation or travel.
Green means the new normal until a vaccine is discovered and is widely available.
Jenkins stressed that it's a guideline and not an order, but was designed by doctors.
"We're at red right now," he said.