On December 31st Governor Greg Abbott announced that the State of Texas, through the Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Texas Department of State Health Services, has requested resources for federally-supported testing locations and medical personnel and additional federal allocations of monoclonal antibodies.
According to several news sources, on January 3rd a DSHS representative said the state was given approval from the federal government for the opening of six federal testing sites in Bexar, Cameron, Dallas, Harris, Hidalgo and Tarrant counties.
Texas has also requested support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for testing sites DSHS also has requested additional allocations of sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody therapeutic. The agency also requested that the federal government continue to supply the State of Texas with Regeneron and bamlanivimab, monoclonal antibody treatments for other strains of COVID-19. DSHS has also requested three teams of medical personnel to provide additional support to hospitals in urban areas of the state that do not have DSHS-contracted staff. According to state health officials, these additional requests remain pending.