Governor Kim Reynolds.
Governor Kim Reynolds today said she’s confident in the results from the COVID-19 test kits that Utah companies are providing for the “Test Iowa” program.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports medical experts are questioning the accuracy of the “Test Utah” program the same companies are running. Reynolds says the state lab processing Test Iowa kits is taking all precautions necessary to validate results.
“Test Utah is located at a regional hospital. We decided to bring ours into the State Hygienic Lab through the University of Iowa,” Reynolds said, “….to make sure that we can assure Iowans that the results we are getting are accurate and what they should be.”
Reynolds suggested the high number of negative COVID-19 test results in the Test Utah program is related to the expanded amount of testing in that state.
“They’ve opened it up to anyone who wants to test,” Reynolds said during her daily news conference. “We’re still keeping ours very narrow.”
Iowa is limiting testing to essential workers in health care and meatpacking, as well as Iowans who have symptoms or who’ve been around someone who’s tested positive for COVID-19. Reynolds said the test kits the Utah companies developed are F-D-A approved, but the governor suggested Utah’s process of confirming test results may be different from what’s happening at the lab in Coralville.
“I can assure you, because we’re on the phone with them every day, that they’re taking every measure and taking every step that they can to make sure that they are doing the validation process accurately and they can be confident in the results they’re reporting out to Iowans,” the governor said.
Test Iowa drive-through sites are operating in Des Moines and Waterloo. State officials do not intend to break out Test Iowa results in their daily reports of COVID-19 data.