Texas County increasing in COVID-19 cases and testing

TEXAS COUNTY, Okla. (KFDA) - The number of coronavirus cases in Texas County continues to rise daily.

34 cases were reported Thursday, 35 reported Friday, 54 reported Sunday and 50 reported Wednesday.

For a county with a population of nearly 20,000, Texas County is increasing rapidly in COVID-19 cases just this last week.

As cases continue to increase, county and city officials are trying to increase testing too.

“More tests kits have come in. The health department is obviously very busy testing. There’s doctors in town that are testing. Roughly, in a day, we’re getting that number. There are still 150 to 200 tests pending at the end of the day,” said Guymon Mayor Sean Livengood.

The problem the county is facing lies in the amount of time it takes to get the results of a test.

“It’s taking a long time to get our results. Sometimes it’s taking, anywhere, five to ten days to get a result on a test, and that’s not acceptable with our cases,” said Harold Tyson, director of Texas County Emergency Management.

Texas County businesses have also stepped up to providing testing as well.

Tuesday, Seaboard Foods, a pork processing plant in Guymon, began testing all employees.

As of May 9, the plant had reported 206 cases of COVID-19 with nearly 75 percent of those cases being residents in Texas County.

“Currently, we are sending patients to Woodward, Oklahoma, to their hospital. Some to Amarillo, and potentially, Eden would be the next location if we needed to continue to send patients in other places,” said Mayor Livengood.

Nearly three weeks ago, Oklahoma began to restart part of it’s economy with spas, barbershops and salons re-opening.

However, Tyson says Texas County is far from returning to normal.

“I think this is far from over. We still got a long ways to go before we can say we’re at normal,” said Tyson.

Texas County will have another mass drive-thru testing site set up this Saturday.

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