Bastrop County medical officials have increased the county’s coronavirus testing capacity to 25 per day after obtaining "an ongoing supply of test kits," Bastrop County Emergency Management Deputy Director Christine Files announced Monday.

The county opened its coronavirus testing site at Mayfest Park in Bastrop on March 24. As of Monday, health care workers had performed 168 tests yielding 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Files said that with the county’s increased capacity, it began administering tests to residents from Fayette, Caldwell and Lee counties last week.

The latest supply of test kits comes from a variety of sources. Twenty-five kits will come from the Texas Department of State Health Services, 200 from Ascension Seton and 100 from Clinical Pathology Laboratories — the lab that tests all kits from Bastrop County.

The county’s medical team has reached an agreement with Clinical Pathology Laboratories through which the lab will now send 120 test kits per week to the county.

"Our community test site is imperative to our fight against this virus by enabling us to identify those members of our community who are sick so that they can be treated when necessary and isolated until they are well," Files said.

Of Bastrop County’s 27 coronavirus cases, one person has died due to COVID-19 and two have recovered from the illness, though the number of recovered patients may not be accurate because many people do not follow-up with recovery information, Files said.

Another 310 county residents have been identified as persons under investigation, meaning they have been diagnosed as having COVID-19 by a health care provider though they have not been tested to confirm the diagnosis.

While the number of confirmed positive coronavirus cases is updated daily, the number of people under investigation is updated weekly by Bastrop County Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes. Walkes determines this number by surveying medical practices, clinics and hospitals in Elgin, Smithville, Bastrop and Bastrop County each week and compiling the number of people each office has seen displaying COVID-19 symptoms.

Files said the county has not yet hit its peak of coronavirus cases and "things are still expected to get worse."

"The hope is that we have put enough practices in place and enough people will follow those so that we will stay within the surge capacity of our regional healthcare system," she said. "It is up to all of us to stay the course."

Helping neighbors

Bastrop County’s augmented testing supply allowed health care workers to begin testing residents from Caldwell, Fayette and Lee counties last week after physicians there requested permission to send patients to Bastrop for testing.

Neither Lee nor Caldwell counties have testing sites of their own and have a "very limited supply" of test kits available, Files said. Fayette County did not have a testing site as of last week but has since opened one.

Lee County has recorded two positive coronavirus cases, Caldwell has recorded six and Fayette has recorded 10, according to state data updated Monday.

Bastrop County’s medical team has also assembled a group that will provide assistance and oversight to the county’s nursing homes and assisted living centers.

No residents from nursing homes or assisted living centers in the county have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday, Files said.