Ohio governor calls for federal help with testing materials

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The governor of Ohio is calling on the federal government to help provide crucial materials that would allow a dramatic increase in testing for coronavirus in his state.

Gov. Mike DeWine said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Ohio hospitals doing the testing lack needed chemicals known as reagents, and help from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is needed.

“I could probably double, maybe even triple testing in Ohio virtually overnight,” said DeWine, who called on the FDA to “prioritize companies that are putting a slightly different formula together for the extraction reagent kit.”

“We have worldwide shortage of some of the materials that go into this, so we really need help,” he said. “Anybody in the FDA is watching, this would really take our capacity up literally … overnight.”

DeWine, a Republican, referred to his having sought help several weeks ago with an issue involving sterilization of masks, and he said President Trump “got that done.” The FDA authorized a Columbus-based private research lab to deploy a system that can sanitize 160,000 face masks a day, after initially approving only 10,000 masks a day.