COVID-19: Ohio governor says false positive was ‘wake-up call’

• Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 on August 6, but subsequent tests came back negative.
• Speaking to CNN, the Republican governor said the experience points to issues that exist with rapid antigen tests.
• Last week, DeWine and six other governors announced plans to pool their purchasing power to obtain hundreds of thousands of antigen tests.
• Asked if he was going ahead with that plan, DeWine told CNN that “we’ve not made a decision.”
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is more skeptical of antigen COVID-19 tests after himself receiving a false positive last week.

“If anyone needed a wake up call about antigens, how careful we have to be, we certainly saw that with my test,” DeWine told CNN in an interview on Sunday.

The Republican governor’s positive test result made headlines on Thursday, just hours before President Trump was set to land in his state. But subsequent tests came back negative.

“I think what people should not take away from my experience is that testing is not reliable or does not work,” DeWine told CNN. Rather, the lesson is that the antigen method, which can return results in under 20 minutes, should be “looked at as a screening test,” not the final word.

Last week, Business Insider reported that DeWine and six other governors had entered into an interstate compact to obtain hundreds of thousands of antigen tests.

Asked about that compact on Sunday, and whether he plans to go ahead with the purchase of such tests, DeWine demurred. “We’ve not made a decision,” he said.

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