Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday that a tip from actor Ashton Kutcher led her to the Utah-based companies she hired to run Iowa's $26 million coronavirus testing program.

"He asked if I was familiar with what was happening with 'Test Utah,' and how it looks very promising, and it looked like other states should potentially take a look at that," Reynolds said at her daily news conference Thursday.

Reynolds announced Tuesday that the state had hired a group led by Nomi Health to run a coronavirus testing and information program modeled on one it started several weeks ago in Utah. The contract, to be paid with federal money, was not open to bids from other companies.

Kutcher, an Iowa native, told the governor that he knew one of the organizers of the testing effort and could link them up, Reynolds told reporters.

She said she checked with Utah's governor about how the program was going. She and her team were impressed with both the testing capabilities and the way the companies would use information Iowans enter on the TestIowa website to target "hot spots" where the virus is spreading quickly.

Earlier this month, Kutcher narrated an advertisement urging Iowans to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic. The governor said Thursday that their discussion about the testing companies came up during the arrangement of that ad.

Kutcher said in a statement released by his publicist that he is friends with a leader of one of the companies, Ryan Smith of Qualtrics, and had been talking to him about innovative approaches to the coronavirus pandemic. He said the company's methods of testing made sense and seemed to be working in Utah, so, along with suggesting "tightening up" the state's stay at home orders, he recommended Iowa's governor look at them.

"Governor Reynolds jumped at the chance and moved fast to implement," the statement from Kutcher said. "When the federal government is playing Hunger Games with the states during a pandemic, we have to get creative. My family is in Iowa. My friends are in Iowa. I am and will always be an Iowan. My first order of duty is to protect my family."

Kutcher's publicist, Kathleen Flaherty, said in an email to the Des Moines Register Thursday that the actor does not have investments in the companies involved.

Reynolds' Thursday news conference included the state health department's latest numbers for COVID-19. In Iowa, six more confirmed coronavirus deaths, for a total of 96, and 176 more confirmed infections, for a total of 3,924, were reported.

Later Thursday, the Black Hawk County health department announced it had recorded more than 100 new confirmed infections, for a total of 622 in that county, including seven deaths, KWWL-TV reported. Black Hawk County's outbreak has been partly fueled by infections among workers at a Tyson Foods pork-producing plant in Waterloo. The plant suspended operations this week.

'Iowans are ready to get back to work'

Reynolds said Thursday morning that she hoped the new testing and surveys will hasten the day when Iowa can start lifting restrictions on businesses and the public, at least in areas that don't have coronavirus hot spots. She did not give specific dates for when such decisions would be made.

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"Iowans are ready to get back to work. We need to do that in a responsible manner," she said. "... Many families are struggling, but better days are ahead."

The first drive-through testing clinic is slated to open Saturday in downtown Des Moines. The slots for that clinic had already been filled by some of the more than 120,000 Iowans who took online assessments since the program launched Tuesday. More testing sites should be announced by next week, Reynolds said.

The new website asks questions about Iowans' health conditions, employment and possible exposures to the virus.

Reynolds said some Iowans who filled out the online survey were told they qualified for testing but were not offered a time slot for Saturday's "soft launch" of the drive-through testing program. She said the program would be expanded quickly to offer up to 3,000 tests per day.

The new assessment system is available only online. Reynolds said she knows some Iowans lack access to the internet. She recommended they find family or close friends who could help them enter their information on the website and help them with the needed email confirmation.

Iowa was the second state, after Utah, to hire the companies to run a testing program. Nebraska became the third state to contract with them this week.

The companies will provide nasal-swab tests that look for active infections of the virus. Iowa's State Hygienic Lab is to analyze the samples, using equipment provided by the contractors.

Reynolds on Thursday spoke of the need to offer blood tests, to determine which Iowans have developed antibodies to the virus after being infected. She said state officials are working with the University of Iowa and Iowa State University to determine how such testing should be offered and used. The governor last week said two state labs were ready to process those tests, once the state receives testing materials.

Caitlin Pedati, an epidemiologist and medical director for the Iowa Department of Public Health, noted at the news conference that experts are still trying to figure out how to interpret such blood test results. They're not sure if the presence of antibodies to the virus means a person is immune to it, and if so, how long that immunity might last.

Iowa officials also plan to expand contact tracing efforts, which begin after a person tests positive for the virus. Contact tracing workers track down other people who might have had close contact with that person, and warn them that they should isolate themselves because of possible exposure. Such efforts are particularly important with COVID-19, because infected people can unknowingly spread the virus before they become ill.

Reynolds did not estimate how many contact tracers Iowa would need. She said National Guard soldiers might be assigned to help, as will employees of the Iowa Department of Human Services and state and local health departments.

Tony Leys covers health care for the Register. Reach him at tleys@registermedia.com or 515-284-8449.

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