Mayor Sylvester Turner gathered Thursday with a couple dozen staff members and city officials for lunch at Ocean Palace in Asiatown in a bid to alleviate concerns and tamp down on rumors about COVID-19.

Concern and rumors about the disease have cut into traffic at Asiatown restaurants and businesses.

The outing was planned before a man in Fort Bend County tested presumptively positive for the new coronavirus Wednesday, the area’s first non-imported case.

Turner said he anticipates Houston and Harris County eventually will experience COVID-19 cases as well, but he urged Houstonians not to panic.

“We don’t want the fear to put us at a point where we are doing more damage to ourselves than the virus,” he said at the restaurant.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Fort Bend coronavirus case is first in Houston area

Houston’s public health lab gained a single test kit to analyze samples on Wednesday, allowing the city to conduct its own tests instead of sending samples to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. The kit has the capacity to test 700 specimens suspected of carrying the disease, enough for about 200 to 400 patients.

Turner said the city is trying to be very transparent about its testing process and will notify the public if — or when — a case surfaces in Houston or Harris County.

Part of the reason for that transparency, he said, is to ensure that unfounded rumors do not cause damage to small businesses, as they have in Asiatown, and public health in general.

The city’s lab tested the sample that came back positive on Wednesday. The case involves a 70-year-old Fort Bend County man who recently traveled abroad. He is isolated at a hospital in stable condition. The sample has been sent to the CDC for confirmation.

Fire Chief Sam Peña, who attended the lunch, said it is his understanding that the man was traveling with two other people, who he said he believes are self-quarantining at this point. He said the Houston Fire Department did not respond to the case, but he has ensured personnel have the proper equipment to respond to such calls when they come.

“It’s on our doorstep,” he said.

Turner said the city continues to collaborate with county, state and federal health officials in monitoring the virus.

City leaders gathered at the Houston Emergency Center on Thursday morning for a task force meeting on Houston’s planning and response to the virus.

Public Safety Director George Buenik, who was at the Ocean Palace lunch, would not go into specifics on what the city’s procedures are for responding to a case, but like others he urged folks to take “sensible precautions” — practicing good hygiene and washing hands.

On HoustonChronicle.com: 'It was only a matter of time': Coronavirus case marks milestone for Houstonregion

City Councilmember Tiffany Thomas, State Rep. Gene Wu and several department heads also attended the lunch.

At the restaurant, Turner took his personal bottle of sanitizer and said he does not go anywhere without it. He shared some with Peña and Buenik before they dug into their dim sum.

dylan.mcguinness@chron.com