Ricketts Hides Names of Infected Nursing Homes
LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts rejected a call from four state senators to cancel the state’s $27 million contract with TestNebraska, saying the Utah companies behind the testing were the only group available for the hard-to-obtain tests.
“Every state was out there trying to find ways to expand testing and they still are looking — we’re still looking for ways,” Ricketts said Monday.
“We found a consortium of companies that had access to all of these (testing) materials that was able to set up very, very quickly,” the Republican governor added. “I don’t know of anyone else who was offering the same sort of thing.”
State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha joined three other Democratic senators in calling for the cancellation of the contract with Nomi Health of Orem, Utah, and three other firms from the so-called “silicon slope” in that state.
The senators questioned the expertise of Nomi Health, which is a data collection firm with little health background, and its ability to provide 540,000 COVID-19 test kits for Nebraska, and said the money should have been invested in Nebraska tech companies and its public labs
https://www.omaha.com/news/state_and_regional/ricketts-rejects-calls-to-cancel-testnebraska-contract-name-nursing-homes-with-coronavirus-cases/article_2fca6961-701b-51f8-a807-44ffcb3ced0c.html
