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Iowa Guard Airmen support Sioux City COVID-19 test

185th Air Refueling Wing, Iowa Air National Guard

May 7, 2020 | 3:00

Iowa Air National Guard members are assisting with COVID-19 testing activates in Sioux City, Iowa this week.

A team of 35 members from the Sioux City, Iowa based 185th Air Refueling Wing helped set up, and are now assisting local and state agencies with logistics and traffic control at a COVID-19 test site in Sioux City.

The drive through test site was set up this week in the parking of the Western Iowa Technical Community College campus, located in the Morningside area of Sioux City along the Highway 75 bypass.

According to 1st Lieutenant Matt Wulf of the Iowa Air Guard, community members who are presenting with signs or symptoms of COVID-19 can sign up on line. Once the determination is made that they are eligible to be tested they are allowed to visit the drive through test site at the WIT campus.

The “Test Iowa” initiative is being directed by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds as part of ongoing efforts in determining an effective state wide response to COVID-19.

Wulf said as of this week there are four test sites in the state were members of the Iowa Air and Army National Guard are providing assistance with testing. He added that additional test sites in Iowa may be created as early as next week.

Samples collected from Sioux City and the rest of the test sites around the state are sent to the Iowa Hygienic Laboratory in Coralville, Iowa. Once delivered the samples are processed with the goal of providing results in within 24 hours.

Because of the large distance between Sioux City and the eastern Iowa based laboratory, a helicopter from the Iowa Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 376th Aviation Support Facility in Waterloo is assisting. The U.S. Army UH-72 Lakota is dispatched to Sioux City at the end each day to provide quick delivery of samples collected from the western Iowa test site.

Wulf said 185th Airmen are planning on providing manning for the test site in Sioux City through the end of next week. He added that his team is ready to support continuing needs as the state response to COVID-19 continues to evolve.

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