US health official asks people to get COVID-19 test after holiday

HOUSTON - With the Thanksgiving holiday weekend over, US Texas health officials on Monday urged everyone to get a COVID-19 test.

Sherri Onyiego, director of Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention for Texas' Harris County Public Health, expressed her concern that people who spent holiday with family and friends may be infected with the virus. She recommended waiting five days after possible exposure to get tested.

"Testing too soon, as you pointed out, could certainly lead to false negatives and individuals could in error take that negative result and potentially go and infect others unknowingly," local media quoted Onyiego as saying.

The expert also recommended avoiding other people before the test and while waiting for the results.

Sylvester Turner, mayor of Houston, on Monday said that November was the second busiest month in terms of COVID-19 testing in the country's fourth largest city.

According to Turner, 90,877 people got tested between Nov 1 and Nov 28. "I want to thank everyone for getting tested before making your holiday plans," he tweeted.

Turner said that Houston reported 685 new cases on Monday, bringing the total to 97,703. The positivity rate was 8.2 percent as of Sunday.