Home Local News IOWA COVID-19 GLITCH WASN’T IDEAL

IOWA COVID-19 GLITCH WASN’T IDEAL

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Governor Kim Reynolds says the state website that lists Covid-19 data is a work in progress and a glitch that reported recent positive test results as having been confirmed weeks and sometimes months ago has been addressed.

For example, nurses are frequently tested and the governor revealed she has been tested 10 times. The state’s medical director became aware of the discrepancy in reporting SOME positive results at the end of July, shortly after the governor announced the website’s data would determine if a district would be allowed to switch students to online instruction. Dr. Caitlin Pedati — the state medical director — acknowledged Thursday during the governor’s news conference that the glitch — in her words — wasn’t ideal.

The governor told reporters she was not made aware of the inaccurate data until last week. Early THIS week, a nurse practitioner in Iowa City alerted various media outlets she’d received an email from the Department of Public Health to confirm discrepancies on the website.

The governor told reporters 79 counties saw a decline and 20 counties saw an increase in “positivity” rates. The positivity rate is the measure of the percentage of tests that are positive. The governor said Iowa’s overall positivity rate during the pandemic held steady at nine-point-four percent as the website updates were being made.