(Council Bluffs) -- Members of Iowa's Democratic congressional delegation are speaking on out perceived shortcomings in the state's current coronavirus testing process.
Earlier this week, Iowa Congresswomen Cindy Axne and Abby Finkenauer, along with Congressman David Loebsack sent a letter to Governor Kim Reynolds expressing concerns over the capability and expansion plans of the TestIowa program. Despite mobile testing centers established in eight communities, Axne says tells KMA News TestIowa has yet to reach the goal of averaging 3,000 tests per day.
"That is what was laid out," said Axne. "We were going to be able to get 3,000 tests per day, get Iowa up and running in the capacity it needs across the state, to ensure that we were testing within people's back yards--not having them drive miles, and miles out of their way, or to a spot where they don't even know where to go. We've got to address this where it's happening."
Axne also says there's a great need for a testing location in Council Bluffs. Currently, Denison is the only community in western Iowa with a mobile testing center.
"I've heard from folks in Council Bluffs that they don't have a testing site," she said, "even though Pottawattamie County is experiencing over a 400% increase right now. We all know the Council Bluffs-Omaha metro area is big--it's like a million people. And, folks travel back and forth across state lines. We have folks coming in from other counties to work in the Council Bluffs-Omaha area. So, there's a lot of folks coming in and out."
Axne says TestIowa should be held accountable, since federal dollars were used to establish the program.
"This is federal funds that were used to set this up," said Axne. "This is appropriated by myself and others in Congress, and I want to make sure those taxpayer dollars are being used well. So, I want to make sure we're ramping up the testing, so that we can get to 3,000 per day. I also want to find out where we're going to add additional testing sites, like in the Council Bluffs area. We've got to understand how this is going to happen, so that we can root out additional outbreaks."
The West Des Moines Democrat also questions the drive to reopen the state, saying COVID-19 "is not in our rear view mirror."
