KILLEEN, TX — It’s a story we’ve all heard before, a case of light symptoms leading to a positive test result of the coronavirus.
This time, it caused a community clinic to shut its doors temporarily.
Health officials are no strangers to the damage COVID-19 can potentially do.
“We knew it would happen eventually,” said Amanda Robison-Chadwell, the director of the Bell County Public Health District . “I’ve got to say, making it from March to October, almost November, I think we did a pretty good job.”
The shutdown came after a patient visited the Killeen clinic of the Bell County Public Health District late last week with what doctors say were allergy-like symptoms.
Officials told 25 News tracking the exposure was easy due to the limited amount of staff and appointment-only scheduling.
”We certainly want to make sure that we have the opportunity to clean, isolate our staff and make sure people are safe, first and foremost,” Robison-Chadwell said. “That’s the most important thing for us.”
Until further notice, the clinic will only be offering its immunization services.
But, experts say the clinic does much more for Bell County.
“Women’s health is such an important function of any of our community clinics because they do a lot of screenings and can refer patients to organizations who can do screenings for us,” said Amy Mersiovsky, the director and chair of nursing at Texas A&M Central Texas.
Experts urge people to listen to their body if something seems wrong, even if your community is shut down.
“If patients are sick they need to be seen,” Mersiovsky added. “They don’t need to avoid seeing a physician or other healthcare provider.”
Bell County Health District officials say the clinic in Temple will gladly welcome patients that have been affected by this shut down.
