(Radio Iowa) – Public health officials are urging Iowans who test positive for COVID-19 using an at-home rapid test to report those results to their local health department. The demand for at-home testing is rising as the highly-transmissible Omicron variant drives a spike in new infections. Nola Aigner-Davis is spokeswoman for the Polk County Public Health Department in Des Moines.

Aigner-Davis says, “If you have a positive test, we would love for you to report it so we kind of have more of an accurate picture on what we’re seeing in the community.” Figures released by the Iowa Department of Public Health on Monday show the number of Iowans testing positive for COVID-19 has taken a sharp upturn. More than 17-thousand positive tests were reported in the last week, that’s up 37-percent from the previous week. Aigner-Davis says it’s important for people who test positive at home to report it.

“It’s great that everyone is doing self at home tests,” she says, “but if we don’t have that data, it doesn’t accurately reflect what we’re actually seeing in the community.” Aigner-Davis says Iowans should continue to take precautions against COVID-19, like wearing masks and getting vaccinated, as the number of new infections is expected to further increase in coming weeks.

(by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)