Cedar Rapids Today

Only 334 Iowa citizens were tested for COVID-19 during the first four days of a new drive-through site that is located in Cedar Rapids, according to The Gazette. 

Stacey Walker, who is the Linn County supervisor, said on May 13 that healthcare professionals claim that a “fairly large amount” of the results came back inconclusive.

“That’s a very long time in between when these tests were administered and when our public health officials were able to begin acting on it and start contact tracing,” Walker told The Gazette.

The testing location in Cedar Rapids joins seven other drive-thru sites scattered throughout Iowa. These drive-thru testing sites were opened in accordance with the Test Iowa Initiative.

Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the initiative on April 21. Reynolds said the initiative gives Iowa “the ability to conduct a large-scale assessment and testing is critical to understand how prevalent this disease is and how it’s evolving.”

Pat Garrett, who is a spokesperson for Reynolds, told The Gazette that the state is observing 1% to 2% of the test results come back inconclusive. Garrett also said this is “not unique to Test Iowa.” Garrett said the people whose tests come back inconclusive should ask their doctors whether they need to self-isolate.

The method for verifying the tests at the Iowa Hygienic Lab is not finished yet, Reynolds told reporters in a recent press briefing. The Lab technicians are checking out the equipment provided by a company located in Utah.