MADISON, Wis. — Dane County is one of the first in the state to have a specific platform for residents to self-report their at-home COVID-19 test results. 

Public Health Madison Dane County launched a form in September that lets people alert the health department that they’ve tested positive. 

While people can report their results to some health departments across the state, none seem to have a form built like PHMDC does. 

“It takes five minutes to fill out, it's really it's a quick process,” said Morgan Finke, Public Health Madison Dane County communications coordinator. “When somebody is sick, maybe not feeling well, it's probably not something that folks will want to do, but it is extremely helpful.”

The use of at-home tests has skyrocketed in just the last eight weeks or so. While health officials recommend getting a PCR test after a positive at-home test, this will get them results faster. 

“It just helps public health estimate and understand exactly how much COVID is circulating in our community,” Finke said. 

That data is then manually added to the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System. That’s where PCR tests are automatically uploaded. The system cross-checks when staff input that at-home testing data, so results will not show up as a duplicate. The record will reflect that a person self-reported a positive result, and got a result from a PCR test. 

About 600 people have self-reported a positive result since the form launched in September. 

For more information on self-reporting at-home results, click here.