Nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Texas will receive on-site, same-day COVID-19 testing and results for both residents and staff, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Friday.
Omnicare, a CVS health company, is partnering with the state of Texas to provide the point-of-care testing and will begin the testing in nursing homes next week.
State testing teams began the on-site testing in assisted living facilities on Thursday.
"This partnership with Omnicare and CVS Health will increase COVID-19 testing in our assisted living facilities and nursing homes and help us protect vulnerable Texans from COVID-19," Abbott said in a statement. "Our collaboration with public and private entities is crucial to ramping up testing in Texas and mitigating the spread of this virus—especially among our most vulnerable populations."
The goal for the test sites in the first month is to process up to 100,000 tests.
According to an Associated Press analysis of coronavirus case data in June, nursing home residents accounted for 1 out of 10 of all coronavirus cases and over a quarter of all coronavirus-related deaths in the United States.
In June, state testing teams had completed testing of nursing home residents and staff at the direction of Abbott.
Abbott had ordered testing for all Texas nursing home residents and staff in May.
