WACO, Texas — As the U.S. surpasses 10 million Coronavirus cases, there's a spike in McLennan County and they have now surpassed more than 11,200 Covid-19 cases.
Kelly Craine with the Waco-McLennan County Health District said they were averaging about 60 cases per day. However, the first week of November it increased to more than 100 per day.
"Last week we started seeing a dramatic increase in cases," Craine said. "These are not all from surge testing and in addition to our increase in cases, we've seen an increase in hospitalizations, which is definitely concerning," Craine added.
In an effort to provide even more Covid-19 surge testing, they're now using a mobile testing unit that can administer up to 500 tests per day.
"It's not a drive thru situation, so the way it's set up you just walk up to the window and they administer the test for you and that's all you need to do," Craine said.
The walk up mobile unit allows flexibility to bring testing directly to businesses and the community. So now it'll reach more people who would otherwise not have access.
"This is a good time to get tested with this free testing available before you go to thanksgiving, before you host something at your house or go to someone's house," Craine said, "make sure everyone gets tested so they know their status."
Craine said the goal is not only to protect ourselves this holiday season, but make sure that everyone is back for next year's holiday season and she said that's going to take the entire community working together to slow the spread.
Testing is free and you can find information on locations by visiting COVIDWACO.com