AP
3/13/21
As virus cases plummeted, Iowa quietly extended a $3.9 million contact tracing contract with an Iowa City-based company owned by a major Republican Party donor and supporter of Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The Iowa Department of Public Health hired MCI, a telemarketing firm located on Sierra Court, in November to trace the contacts of Iowa residents infected with COVID-19 after a one-day emergency bidding process. The two-month, $2.3 million contract came during an explosion of cases that filled up hospitals with patients and after counties had for months complained of a shortage of contact tracing workers. Four days before MCI’s contract was to expire on Jan. 31, Iowa’s state epidemiologist signed a three-month contract extension with MCI that is worth another $1.6 million.