CLEVELAND — One of the most important keys to success in Governor Mike DeWine's plan to succesfully reopen Ohio is to have enough COVID-19 testing supplies to meet the heavy demand.
On Friday, DeWine told 3News anchor Russ Mitchell that even though President Trump has said that everyone who wants a test can have a test, that's not the case yet in Ohio.
"The White House has been very helpful in getting our tests up," DeWine said in a one-on-one interview. "We're now running close to 8,000 tests a day, we want to be much, much higher than that. We now have the capacity for 14,000 to 16,000 per day."
So how can the state get those testing numbers up?
"Part of it is setting up a supply chain around the state, kind of building something from scratch. But we're going to continue to increase the testing," the governor added.
Last month, DeWine announced that the state reached an agreement with Thermo Fisher to increase the state's access to testing reagents. Additionally, through a collaborative effort with the Ohio Manufacturers Association, the Roe Dental Lab in Cleveland is helping to manufacture up to one million swabs to aid the state's testing efforts.
As important as the accumulation of supplies is to DeWine, he is also focusing on ensuring that testing is being done to those who are showing coronavirus symptoms.
"The most important place that testing can occur is when someone exhibits signs that they might have COVID. We want them to be able to get a test. If they test positive, the tracing team comes into play from the local health department," DeWine added.
You can watch Russ Mitchell's entire interview with Gov. DeWine in the player below:
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