Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price tested for COVID-19 after close contact with positive staffer
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price was tested for COVID-19 after coming into close contact with someone who tested positive.
The person the mayor had contact with worked for the city’s Emergency Operations Center. The city has not revealed when this person got sick or got tested.
Mayor Price revealed the information to the public Monday while holding her daily Facebook Live briefing. This time, it was from home.
“I was notified through tracing today that an individual I have been in close contact with has tested positive for COVID 19,” she announced.
Tuesday afternoon, Price announced she tested negative. However, since another staffer she's been in contact tested positive, she said she will continue to quarantine.
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A city spokesperson told FOX 4 the person the mayor had contact with was a member of the team working within the Joint Emergency Operations Center. It’s unclear when the person was last inside of the EOC, but the city says he or she went home immediately after experiencing symptoms. The positive test came back Monday morning.
“While I’m asymptomatic, no symptoms at all, at the recommendation of our Public Health Director and Dr. Keith Argenbright and out of an abundance of caution, I’m getting tested tomorrow morning,” Price said.
Everyone who has been in contact with the individual has been notified and will be tested. Other city staff members will also be tested, but the city would not say how many.
Price says she and her husband are now isolating at home, taking their temperatures and checking for any possible symptoms twice a day.
“Fortunately, we haven’t been very many places,” she said. “Our footprint is very small.”
For the last several weeks, Price has held closed press conferences featuring one or two city leaders or health experts as guests. On Thursday, she came in close contact with medical professionals and posed with them for selfies ahead of a city-wide standing ovation for first responders.
“I will continue to provide you with daily updates and information for our residents and I’ll let you know what my tests show tomorrow evening or the next day,” she said.
City manager David Cooke sent out an email to roughly 7,000 city employees informing them of the positive COVID test. THE EOC will continue to operate by rotating shifts. Some are working from home one week and in the center the next to ensure that the city can still run.
Fort Worth officials did not say when Price may have been in contact with the person. Everyone else has also been contacted who came into contact with the patient.
Price will continue her Facebook Live city updates from home until she gets her test results.