DES MOINES, Iowa — Around 27,000 antigen test results from long-term care facilities will be added to Iowa's coronavirus website over the weekend, according to a release from the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH).
IDPH's release says the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is requiring long-term care facilities to conduct routine surveillance testing. The federal government is providing initial antigen testing supplies and equipment nationwide to help with testing.
The state has already received nearly 27,000 antigen test results from long-term care facilities during the month of September. These results will be uploaded to the coronavirus website over the weekend.
IDPH says around 300 of these tests came back positive, or about 1.1%. While facilities informed public health officials as soon as positive cases were identified, the IDPH says "public reporting of the test results has taken additional time."
Long-term care facilities aren't able to directly submit test results to Iowa's electronic reporting system, unlike labs. To help, the IDPH created a new reporting tool for long-term care facilities to use to "streamline the process for reporting antigen test results."
As of 10:15 a.m. Saturday, 85,425 Iowans have tested positive for the coronavirus. Of those tests, 2,644 are antigen results. A total of 20,304 Iowans have been tested for the virus via antigen tests.
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