SMITH COUNTY, Texas — As COVID-19 cases continue to rise not only in Smith County, but across the state, the Public Health Laboratory of East Texas (PHLET) is looking to expand its testing capabilities.
The Smith County Commissioners approved allocating $650,564 out of its more than $5 million CARES Act funds for upgrades and renovations to the lab.
“What this funding will do is help to ensure and sustain that safety and security on behalf of the laboratorians who work in that laboratory, as well as to acquire necessary additional and new technologies,” Dr. Jeffrey Levine, director of the PHLET, said.
Currently, the PHLET is able to process 50 tests a day, but new technology will increase that amount by five times to 250. The turnaround time will also become quicker.
“One step that we’re doing, it’s called the extraction step of the viral genetic material,” explained Levine. “Right now, that is largely done manually. With the equipment that we will be acquiring, that can be done in a much more automated fashion and speed up the process.”
The lab will also be connecting its system with that of UT Health Science Center’s to reduce the chances services will be interrupted. The PHLET is located at the back of the science center.
Levine told the commissioners, some of renovations have already begun, but the lab is waiting on some new equipment and it will take some time after to get things up and running.
“Once it arrives, we have to go through a series of validation efforts to set it up into make sure that it's operating properly,” he said. “But in the meantime, it will not affect the current testing capacity that we have in the laboratory."
Smith County Judge Nathaniel Moran says this might be the smartest way the county is able to spend CARES Act funds because these upgrades will benefit East Texas even once the pandemic has ended.
“It will return health dividends for years to come for this community,” Moran said. “It’s an opportunity to strategically partner with UT Health Science Center at Tyler where the benefits are tangible, long-lasting, and have multiple uses beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. In my opinion, this will be the most impactful use of our grant funding.”
Other items Smith County has purchased using money from the CARES Act include:
- 20 phones and 20 computers for NET Health via an interlocal agreement for NET Health to expand its local contact tracing efforts in conjunction with the dedication of no-cost office space in the Courthouse Annex Building;
- More than 40,000 disposable masks for use by employees and the public;
- 500 face shields for election workers to use in the November General Election;
- 20,000 “finger cots” for voters to use in the November General Election;
- 70 free-standing hand sanitizer stations for use at each election polling location and at various county facilities;
- More than 20,000 pairs of disposable gloves for use by county employees;
- 2 walk-through metal detectors for use in off-site jury selection;
- More than 50 laptops for use by employees to undertake county business remotely and ensure continuity of services to the public; and
- More than 500 COVID-19 tests for county employees.