Expanded Antigen Tests Force Reynolds Coronavirus Reporting Reevaluation
Eight fold increase in antigen testing expected according to Reynolds
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced receipt of 60,000 Binax rapid coronavirus test kits by the state’s Hygienic’s Lab during her press conference this morning. The Governor’s staff is finalizing a distribution plan prioritizing, “hospitals and clinics in rural Iowa,” for the antigen test because according to Reynolds, these areas have not had access to the testing other parts of the state have the Governor said.
Tracking these test results are a challenge because rural areas do not have access to the electronic reporting methods more urban areas have. This means a new method of transmitting those results is required for rural medical professionals. Dramatically expanding testing with the Binax test creates self-inflicted problems with the current Iowa Department of Public Health outcome publishing approach.
Though 833,000 Iowans received at least one coronavirus test over the past seven months many received more than one with temporary sites and labs administering nearly 1.3 million tests Reynolds said.
The IDPH’s coronavirus website data reflects people, not test kits and Iowans swabbed second and third times have their test date from the first evaluation expunged. The result is a shrinking number of total tests on earlier dates. Each day, the IDPH published the number of people tested for all previous dates. For example, the state’s July 14 data reported 747 individuals tested March 26. This morning, the March 26th testing number was down to 486, a reduction of 261 people from their report three months earlier.
Repeated inquires to Dr. Caitlyn Pedati and her staff to explain why the total test number was decling by journaists, scientists and investigators were ignored. Only in early September did the department admit what it was doing with the data.
By finally describing their methodology, people independently tracking the state’s infection numbers could “back out” the deletions and come reasonably close to the historical testing number and total number of tests administered along witha relatively accurate trend line.
Reynolds admitted introduction of the new antigen testing means, “reporting the total number of tests instead of individuals tested may become a more useful indicator of current virus activity.” Moreover, this approach is consistent with how the state conducts influenza surveillance according to the Governor.
A review of the change in testing reporting and final testing distrubtion plans is expected next week.