Gov. Mike DeWine, First Lady Fran DeWine and staff members tested negative for COVID-19, the governor’s office announced hours after saying the governor tested positive for the virus.
DeWine and his staff were administered a PCR test on Thursday afternoon, which has been used more than 1.6 million times by hospitals and labs across Ohio. The tests were run twice at the Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and returned negative both times.
“The PCR test looks for the specific RNA for the SARS CoV-2 – in other words, the genetic material specific for the virus that causes COVID-19,” the governor’s office said in a news release. “This test is known to be extremely sensitive, as well as specific, for the virus.”
On Thursday morning, DeWine received an antigen test as part of the protocol to greet President Donald Trump after arriving in Cleveland.
“These tests represent an exciting new technology to reduce the cost and improve the turnaround time for COVID-19 testing, but they are quite new, and we do not have much experience with them here in Ohio,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “We will be working with the manufacturer to have a better understanding of how the discrepancy between these two tests could have occurred.”
According to a news release, DeWine and the first lady plan to take another PCR test on Saturday.
On Thursday evening, Ohio reported 97,471 total COVID-19 cases and 3,618 total deaths from the virus, which originated in China.
