(WJW)–Covid-19 antibody testing is set to begin in Ohio today. State Health Department Director Dr. Amy Acton said researchers will test for antibodies as well as the accuracy of antibody tests.
Governor DeWine said at a press conference on Thursday the state would also “start fairly soon” going out and sampling the general population for Covid-19.
***More on Governor DeWine’s plans for reopening Ohio here***
“Those are our prevalence studies based on working with the World Health Organization it’s the type of study you saw New York City do recently where they got some of their first prevalence numbers and you know we have a team of researchers lead by a group at OSU, but using faculty across the state, and it will actually go out into our communities and will begin it’s called a 30×30 prevalence study,” Dr. Acton said.
Researchers will take 1,000 blood samples, according to Dr. Acton.
“As you know the antibody testing has had various levels of accuracy so far in the data so we are actually going to use a blood test which is unique about Ohio we’re going to actually test the accuracy of the antibody tests,” Acton said.
“It’s the same thing we’re testing in hospitals on people who have recovered and are donating their antibodies for convalescent plasma,” Acton continued.
According to Governor DeWine’s estimates, the state will be doing 14,275 tests a day for Covid-19 by Wednesday and increase to 22,275 tests per day by the end of the month.
Both DeWine and Dr. Acton have said they plan to talk more about the state’s plans to increase testing, which has been scarce, at today’s afternoon press conference.
FOX 8 and FOX8.com will carry the news conference live beginning at 2 p.m.
