Hidalgo County opens new Public Health Facility in Edinburg

EDINBURG, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Hidalgo County held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday for its new Public Health Facility in Edinburg.

The $8 million facility was funded in part by the United States Housing and Urban Development in partnership with the Hidalgo County Urban County Program.

The state-of-the-art, 10,000-square-foot laboratory was constructed within Precinct 4 and is located directly adjacent to the Hidalgo County Health & Human Services Department.

The facility is a Biosafety Level 3 Lab which means they can now treat and test various pathogens and is equipped to run tests in-house without experts having to send them to another lab.

“That’s a unique thing for us, where we have to send off and wait 3 or 4 or 5 days to get results back," said Eduardo Olivarez, Hidalgo County Health Chief Admin Officer. "Here, we can probably get results back in 24 hours, so it’s a lot faster.” 

The facility also incorporates a medical clinic and office space tailored to accommodate laboratory staff and specialists.

The facility will benefit the community due to the quick testing that is now available.

“It's for people that go to our county clinics, the majority of people that go to our clinics are low-income families," said Olivarez. "We’re able to help that population through our county clinics and to be able to get the testing done through here.”

A big motivator for the new facility was the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak.

“The positive or some of the silver lining from this dark time was really that we were able to get some money from the federal government that allows us to expand our facilities here to be able to respond a lot faster, more accordingly," said David L. Fuentes, Hidalgo County Commissioner, Precinct 1.

The new lab will retain a higher amount of local doctors.

“It’ll also provide a way for us to maybe retain some of these younger kids that are looking to go into the medical profession," said Fuentes. "To provide them and afford them an opportunity to practice their skill set here and hopefully retain them.”

The new lab looks to provide state health services as well in case of any future outbreaks.