What it’s like to get tested for coronavirus in Houston

I got the call around 9 a.m. on March 20, still early in my workday. 

My friend J’s voice was groggy with sleep — she had been woken up by her own call. “I got my test results back,” she said. 

“And?” I asked her.

After she and I had hung out earlier in the week, J began to develop a cough, sore throat and other symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. She got tested on March 19 — and the results were positive.

As soon as I got off the phone, I made the…