McLennan County COVID-19 cases increase | Local News
“If you have symptoms, period, you need a test,” Wilson said.
Testing also is still recommended for unvaccinated people going to or coming from travel by air as well as those who have come in contact with someone who has COVID-19.
Local COVID-19 testing is available at Walmart, CVS and H-E-B pharmacies, and at urgent care and physician’s offices, Craine said.
Craine said the heavy emphasis now is on vaccination, not general testing.
“The vaccine changes a lot of things,” she said. “Last year, testing was all we had.”
The Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines presently employed all have been proven effective in limiting the spread of the coronavirus, hospitalizations and deaths. Fully vaccinated people do not need to self-quarantine if they are exposed to someone with the disease, Craine said.
In a tiny number of cases, young men in their teens have developed myocarditis, a heart infection, after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Wilson said the studies show a rate of 70 cases of myocarditis per million vaccinations among males 12 to 17 years old. That is about the same rate of males in that age bracket admitted to the ICU with COVID-19, he said. Given that the majority of those myocarditis cases had cleared up on their own or with treatment without hospital admission, the advantages of vaccination outweigh the risks of contracting COVID-19, he said.
