IDPH to begin updating COVID-19 dashboard once a week in July

DES MOINES, Iowa (KWWL) — As COVID-19 numbers in the state remain low, The Iowa Department of Public Health will soon be moving away from daily updates to the online dashboard.

According to a memo obtained by KWWL, the state will reduce its frequency of data updates to once a week on Wednesdays beginning July 7.

An IDPH spokesperson confirmed to KWWL that the change will include vaccine numbers and that “all data sets will be updated once per week.”

The department says this is congruent with how other states and the federal government have adjusted their reporting.

IDPH also plans to move all COVID-19 numbers to its website (idph.iowa.gov) by late summer and eventually decommission the state dashboard (coronavirus.iowa.gov).

Several data sets will be removed from the dashboard before it’s decommissioned, including long-term care, occupation data, and underlying conditions.

In addition to reporting changes, IDPH will move towards focusing case investigations on outbreaks and vulnerable populations in the state on July 1. This will mainly transition to investigations at the state level, but county public health can continue investigating cases as they see necessary.

Counties will still be required to report positive and negative results to the state as well as outbreaks.

Earlier in June, the IDPH announced that all Test Iowa sites will close by July 16, which will impact some of the data on the dashboard. The Test Iowa sites in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids have already closed.