Lincoln – A Nebraska website designed to ramp up testing for COVID-19 logged about 20,000 new registrations on its first day, and the data that residents submit could help determine which parts of the state get tested first, Gov. Pete Ricketts said last week.

Ricketts said the $27 million program, similar to ones Iowa and Utah, will help state officials decide where to first use 540,000 new tests that were included in the deal with a private contractor.

He said front-line medical and public safety workers will get first priority for testing, followed by people who report a lot of symptoms on the Test Nebraska website, followed by people with just a few symptoms and then potentially people who are asymptomatic.

“Part of it, frankly, will be driven by people filling out the assessment,” Ricketts said. “So if you are interested in having free testing in your area, that’s another good reason why you should go and fill out that assessment.”

His comments added more detail to the plan that is designed to increase testing from the state’s current capacity of 600 to 800 per day to 3,000 per day once it’s fully running in about five weeks. Nebraska’s plan is virtually identical to a testing program in Iowa, which recorded 80,000 registrations within its first 24 hours.

Ricketts said the data that residents submit will belong to the state, can’t be accessed by the companies administering it, and won’t be sold to any other party. He said the information will eventually be destroyed. Like Iowa, Nebraska has signed a contract with Nomi Health, a Utah-based startup. The company and its subcontractors will run the website and mobile testing sites, with the goal of targeting where tests are needed most.

Ricketts said the costs will be covered with federal money from the recently approved coronavirus stimulus package.

Nearly 17,400 people had been tested for the virus statewide as of last Wednesday evening, with nearly 15,500 testing negative for the illness. At that time, Nebraska had 1,813 confirmed cases.

Nebraska is asking for all state residents to register at testnebraska.com.