HOUSTON — The launch of Houston’s third COVID-19 testing mega site got off to bit of a rocky start Wednesday morning when power supply issues delayed operations for nearly an hour.
Some of the first people arriving at Butler Stadium were turned away by Houston police.
“It was probably an oversight,” said Stephen Williams, Director of Houston Health Department, during an exclusive one-on-one interview with KHOU 11 News. “I think that there was a simple misunderstanding of a power source.”
Williams says the provider, UMMC, which operates four other city-affiliated testing sites, miscalculated the need for a generator.
“They should have had their own generator on site,” Williams said.
On Dec. 30, the launch of Houston’s second testing mega-site at Minute Maid Park also got off to a rocky start when officials say a computer glitch with scheduling led to hours-long waits.
“I don’t think there’s a bigger issue at all,” Williams said. “It’s just a daily challenge.”
Williams said finding enough workers to staff those sites has been a big challenge, along with securing a large enough site and planning traffic flow with police.
“I look at it from a very positive point of view,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said when asked about the delays at Butler and Minute Maid Park.
Turner said Houston ramped up operations in a short period of time. He expects to hit or come close to his daily testing goal of 35,000 people this week.
“There will always be glitches when you’re setting up mega sites and doing it in a very short period of time, but we’ve been very successful at that,” Turner said. “So, if you compare our operation with what is taking place in other cities across the country, Houstonians can be very, very proud.”
HHD will open two new free mega testing sites on Thursday, in partnership with Xpress COVID Testing: one at the former Dave & Busters site at 6010 Richmond Ave., the other at Kingwood Community Center at 4102 Rustic Woods Dr.
Both new mega sites will be open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in January. Neither will require an appointment.
Williams is also hoping to set up another mega site in the Clear Lake area in southeast Houston. He told KHOU 11 News on Wednesday the city was working out logistics.