DES MOINES, Iowa — Fourteen days after being tested at a TestIowa site, Phil K. James got an email that said his sample was unusable and to sign up for a new test.
"It was basically just a quick note saying that my test is spoiled," James said. "They let me know that I have an opportunity to go and take another test. I actually went onto the website again, the portal, and requested another test and they said I wasn't eligible."
On May 7, Pat Garrett, spokesman for the governor, said a small number of TestIowa samples were damaged and those people would be able to get retested.
Garrett later told Local 5 roughly 60 samples total had been damaged.
He said under their guidelines, James should have qualified for testing.
"A patient who has been notified that their specimen (nasal swab/tube) was not usable/damaged is automatically eligible for retesting and receives the attached email message on how to reschedule an appointment," Garrett said in an email Thursday. "Once the patient clicks the link and completes the assessment, they are directed to scheduling a test irrespective of their assessment results. Then [the patient will] receive a new QR code and can go to any active Test Iowa site anytime during their normal operating hours. If there was a person who was not able to get re-tested after receiving a notice, they should contact the governor's office and we would be happy to help them get re-tested as quickly as possible."
James originally got tested at the Des Moines site on April 29.
He didn't get notified about his unusable sample until May 13.
James said even if he were to qualify now, since his symptoms have mainly gone away other than tightness in his chest, he feels there are others more deserving of a test.
"What I'm going to do is for the next 14 days or so is to just stay away from people, stay at home and just work from home," James said. "Hopefully these things are able to be sorted out by the state because I'm really worried about people that are first responders, healthcare workers, people that are working in nursing homes, for example. I really want those people to be able to have access to these tests. Without timely results and good communication from the state, we're going to continue to see these problems"
More reporting on TestIowa
________________________________________________________________
WATCH: Complete coronavirus coverage from Local 5 on YouTube