Governor's office directs Test Iowa clinic in Dubuque to limit 100 tests daily, city says
Coronavirus testing at a "Test Iowa" clinic will be limited to 100 tests per day on orders by Gov. Kim Reynolds' office, the city of Dubuque announced Monday.
A news release from the city said the governor's office directed Epic Health & Wellness to change operations at the Test Iowa site offered at its clinic in Dubuque, resulting in limiting testing to 100 test per day. Local health officials have said the site was conducting 400-550 tests each day, according to a local report by the Telegraph Herald.
Test Iowa is a $26 million state program with private companies that launched in April to expand testing in the state; some sites are drive-thru locations and others are clinics that collaborate with local health care partners. Since late May, criteria has expanded so anyone seeking a test, regardless of symptoms, can get one through the program.
The directive from the governor's office will scale back hours of operation to one hour per day from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Thursday with no appointments available on Friday.
"If the site reaches the maximum of 100 tests before 7 a.m., testing will be suspended until the next scheduled day," the news release says.
The reduction in testing offered at the Dubuque site comes as cases are rising in the county. Data compiled and analyzed by The New York Times shows it had the second highest number of new cases over the last seven days with 211 confirmed infections. President Trump with said at a rally in June that he told his staff to "slow down" testing, suggesting without evidence that increased testing is the reason for a rise in COVID-19 cases across the country; White House officials said he was joking.
Pat Garrett, a spokesman for the governor's office called the change "temporary." The Dubuque site was asked to curb its operations at a time when demand for testing is increasing, which the governor herself acknowledged at a recent news conference.
"We requested this temporary change to ensure their process is in line with others across the state of Iowa. We want to maintain consistency and high quality performance across all Test Iowa sites," Garrett said in an email.
A spokesman Dubuque County Public Health Incident Management Team in an email referred inquiries to the governor's office, saying "the City of Dubuque, Dubuque County, or Dubuque County Public Health Incident Management Team are not directly involved in it."
Epic Health & Wellness, which is hosting the Test Iowa clinic, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the changes.
