DeWine: Ohio needs to keep pushing for new ways to test for coronavirus

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — During Thursday’s coronavirus briefing, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said the state needs to keep pushing for new ways to test for the coronavirus.

“Testing allows us to isolate those who test positive, make sure they have access to health services and also prevent the spread and transmission of the virus,” DeWine said. “We have expanded [testing] but we’re not where we need to be nor certainly where we want to be.”

DeWine said expanded testing since March includes the Ohio National Guard going into nursing homes to provide testing and providing pop-up testing sites in under-served communities throughout the state.

“The testing is evolving as we move forward,” DeWine said.

He added he and his team of medical experts have great hopes for pooling and providing more antigen tests to scale Ohio’s ability to use testing as a screening tool.

Last week, DeWine announced the state is working with assisted living centers on a new way of collecting samples using saliva instead of a nasal swab.

DeWine said the state began this testing process last week and said it involves the local facility in gathering the samples.

“Some of our assisted living facilities noticed what they felt were inconsistent results and as a result of that, we have determined to start looking into this, so we’ve paused this method of specimen collection for the assisted living facility testing temporarily,” DeWine said.

He said they have paused this process in order to do controlled validation testing to see if the irregularities can be attributed to the test kits, the lab or if it’s an issue in the collection process.