Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine forms new Testing Strike Team to help fight COVID-19
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced today that the formation of a new team to help fight the war on COVID-19.
Led by former Governors’ Richard Celeste and Bob Taft, the new Testing Strike Team will be assembled in an effort to improve testing in Ohio.
“Testing is vital as we work to get our economy restarted and keep Ohioans safe and healthy,” Gov. DeWine said during his press conference Tuesday.
Celeste and Taft will work with Ohio leaders from businesses, academia, and public health.
This news comes shortly after Gov. DeWine announced the FDA has approved a new version of Thermo Fisher’s reagent, which is used in COVID-19 testing kits.
“This approval will greatly expand our state’s ability to increase our testing capacity, DeWine said. “We are working with other companies to make additional reagent kits available so we can continue to ramp up testing in Ohio.”
Because of this approval, Governor DeWine predicts that Ohio will see a larger increase in the number of kits the state can test by as early as mid May.
Governor DeWine also announced Tuesday that over 170,000 checks will be mailed to businesses all over Ohio, which include over $1.6 Billion in dividends to Ohio Employers.
“Approximately $1.4 billion will go to private employers and nearly $200 million will go to local government taxing districts, such as counties, cities, townships, and schools,” Gov. DeWine said.
The checks to businesses will be mailed over the course of the next five days.