(Radio Iowa) – State Auditor Rob Sand says he found no significant concerns about the state’s Covid-19 data reporting during the first 14 months of the pandemic. Sand says issues with the Iowa Department of Public Health’s online Covid dashboard that drew public complaints were out of the state’s control.

“The late entries that a lot of people were talking about and suspicious about early in the pandemic were not because the state was messing anything up,” Sand says. “It was because the private labs that were doing the testing were regularly submitting results very late to the state of Iowa.” Sand says state officials calculated Covid positivity rates correctly, but could have more clearly explained what formula they were using.

Kelly Garcia, the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, says the report highlights the need to upgrade the agency’s outdated I-T and data systems before the next emergency.

(By Natalie Kreb, Iowa Public Radio)