Fewer Iowans are getting tested for COVID-19, and that’s making public health officials nervous.
“Anytime you don’t know your status, you could certainly be spreading the virus unknowingly,” said Liz Highland, an advanced registered nurse practitioner at the clinic that manages the bulk of the University of Iowa’s COVID-19 testing. “That’s the biggest risk — that people who have COVID are still out in the public and spreading it.”
Over the last month, Dec. 21 through Wednesday, the median number of people tested each day in Iowa was 4,148, down 26 percent from the previous month’s daily median of 5,638 people tested, according to Gazette calculations based on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.