Text CONTAINCOVID to 50409 to request that your Iowa legislators and Governor prioritize testing, tracing, and mask usage.

Any missing/incorrect data? Please email us. TestAndTrace is the leading contact tracing research org in the U.S. and has been featured by the U.S. CDC and our data is used by CovidActNow.

TESTING & CONTACT TRACING STATS:

Iowa scores 1/6 on our grading of how prepared a state is to test and trace today.

0.07715428309/1 of tests are positive (the target rate is <.03, aka <3%).

Iowa has 0.4621987455 total contact tracers per daily positive test (target rate is >5)

Iowa has hired 200 contact tracers, plans to hire a total of 350 contact tracers, and based on our modeling it needs to hire at least 2163.571429 contact tracers.

You can view the stats for all states here.

GRADING METHODOLOGY:

The grading scale is based upon the knowledge that:
1. Countries with successful test and trace programs have less than 3% positive tests (meaning that they have enough testing capabilities to test aggressively)
2. A state needs ~5-15 contact tracers per daily positive test (contact tracers interview infected patients about who they’ve had close contact with, and then call those people to help them get tested and quarantined).

Overall Grading Scale: Conducted on a 6 point scale with a 6/6 meaning that a state meets the necessary testing availability and tracing team size benchmarks to successfully test and trace.

Testing Grades:
3 points for under 3% positive tests
2 point for 3-5.5% positive tests
1 point for 5.5-8% positive tests
0 points if over 8% positive tests

Tracing Grades:
3 points for 5-15+ tracers per daily positive case
2 points for 2.5-5 tracers per daily positive case
1 point for 1-2.5 tracers per daily positive case
0 points for under 1 tracer per daily positive case

Data sources:

1. Our own outreach and direct contact with state health departments.
2. NPR’s contact tracing tracking initiative
3. Covid Tracking Project