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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asks feds for help with coronavirus testing ‘if anybody in the FDA is watching’

By Julie Westfall

For the second time during the coronavirus crisis, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Sunday appealed directly to the Food and Drug Administration on TV for help, saying the state needs assistance to increase testing — a critical component of being able to "reopen" the state.

“I could probably double, maybe even triple testing in Ohio virtually overnight if the FDA would prioritize companies that are putting a slightly different formula together on the extraction reagent kit,” he said on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, referring to the chemicals used for testing. “…We have a worldwide shortage of the materials that go into this. We really need help. Anybody who’s in the FDA watching this, this would really take our capacity up, literally overnight, and that’s what we need to get right in Ohio.”

DeWine has been ringing the bell on the need for expanded testing for days.

"Our testing is increasing .. but not nearly fast enough," said in an interview on MSNBC on Friday.

Chemicals and other supplies needed to run the tests are in short supply even though Ohio hospitals and labs have the capacity to do many hundreds more tests a day than they are currently doing.

A few weeks ago, DeWine appealed to the FDA in a TV interview to urge approval of an Ohio company's new process for sterilizing N95 masks for medical use. The company, Battelle, obtained permission to use the new process a couple days later.

DeWine, a Republican who had taken a relatively aggressive approach to the coronavirus by closing schools and restaurants earlier than most, has said he will begin to loosen restrictions on May 1, when the state's stay-at-home order expires. The details of what that looks like aren't yet known and the governor has said he will have more news on that this week.

This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asks feds for help with coronavirus testing ‘if anybody in the FDA is watching’."