DeWine discusses his false positive test for coronavirus

SANDUSKY — Gov. Mike DeWine apparently does not have COVID-19. That's the good news he talked about Friday during his press conference. But he also discussed some bad news, including the fact that Erie County is one of the worst counties now for the spread of COVID-19. The governor had announced Thursday afternoon he tested positive for coronavirus after getting the results of an antigen test he took before a planned meeting with President Donald Trump at a Cleveland airport. A new test was ordered for DeWine, and tests also were carried out on his wife, Fran DeWine, and members of his circle. Late Thursday night, the governor's office announced all had tested negative. Those later results came after the Register's press time for the Friday edition but were released on the newspaper's website. DeWine said he trusts the results of the second test but said an additional test will be carried out Saturday. Those results also will be announced as soon as possible, DeWine said. To explain what went wrong Thursday, DeWine brought in Dr. Peter Mohler, chief scientific officer at OSU's Wexner Medical Center. Wexner said the antigen test that indicated DeWine has the coronavirus is very fast — results are available in 15-to-20 minutes. But it also sometimes produces false positives and false negatives. The PCR test which DeWine and his wife took later Thursday takes longer to produce results, but it's very accurate, Mohler said. That's the test the vast majority of Ohioans have taken, Mohler said. DeWine, discussing Ohio's coronavirus situation, said there are signs of improvement. Hospitalizations are down, and Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, improved its rating from red to orange after compliance with wearing masks improved, the governor said. But DeWine also highlighted the state's remaining hotspots, including Erie County. Ohio has 11 red-alert counties among its 88 counties, and Erie County is one of them. In addition, a new ranking of the 10 worst counties in Ohio for per-capita transmission puts Erie County as No. 9 in Ohio. That's up from 13 in the previous ranking, said Pete Schade, Erie County's health commissioner. Schade said Erie County's poor situation influenced his decision to seek to delay in-person classes in Erie County schools until at least October. "We've got to move in the right direction and right now we're not," said Schade. He said he wants Erie County to return to its previous yellow rating for COVID-19 indicators before officials discuss in-person classes at school. Schade said that with compliance with wearing masks improving in Erie County, he expects the numbers to improve, although it may take a few weeks. On Friday, the Erie County Health Department indicated better compliance with quarantine rules and also announced a change in how compliance is reported. It said on Friday that only three people are not cooperating with the health department's attempts to track compliance with quarantine, down from 21 on Wednesday. Schade said he believes coverage of the issue in the Register may have helped. "People woke up, I guess," he said. "There was a lot of outrage by people in the community." Earlier this week, noncompliance with quarantine was listed by the health department as "total number of Erie County residents that are currently non-compliant with quarantine or isolation requirements." On Friday, it was listed as "total number of Erie County residents currently on quarantine or isolation who have not reported symptoms and temperatures in the past 24 hours." Schade said the health department decided to be more specific. "We wanted to make sure people realize we call them twice a day," he said. Case updates As of Friday, Erie County had 561 total cases, up 25 from Wednesday, and 27 deaths. Ten patients were being treated for COVID-19 at Firelands Regional Medical Center. Huron County's health department issued its weekly update Friday and reported a total of 398 cases so far, with five fatalities. The department said it started a new outbreak investigation in connection with Pean's Pizza Subs & Suds in Monroeville. It said it wrapped up investigations at Collins United Methodist Church/West Hartland United Methodist Church, at GVM Inc, at a Huron County baby shower, and at the Willows at Willard. "Following the conclusion of the investigation, GVM Inc. has been deemed not an official outbreak. With the conclusion of these outbreak investigations, these four facilities will no longer be reported within the weekly update," the department said. The full report is posted at Huron County Public Health's website, huroncohealth.com/coronavirus2019. On Friday, Ottawa County had a total of 371 cases and 26 deaths. Sandusky County had 368 cases and 16 deaths. Ohio stood at 98,675 cases and 3,652 deaths. All of that is according to the state health department. The U.S. had 4,917,050 cases by Friday and 160,702 deaths, while the world had 19,189,737 cases and 716,669 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracking website. Also Friday, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced school districts in Ohio can begin applying Monday for $50 million in grants designed to help their students obtain internet access. An earlier requirement that school districts have to come up with matching money has been removed.