IOWA CITY, Iowa — An Iowa county says that a clinic failed to report up to 3,000 negative coronavirus test results, as concerns about inaccuracies in the state’s official pandemic data continued to mount even as schools use it to determine their fall plans.
Webster County Public Health department spokeswoman Kelli Bloomquist says her agency uncovered the clinic’s failure to report negative tests last week, and the clinic belatedly submitted the 3,000 results.
The state system rejected the submissions, but a subsequent review confirmed that many tests had not been entered.
The new information dramatically reduced the county’s 14-day positivity rate, which the state is using to determine whether school districts must return for at least 50% in-person instruction.
