After positive COVID test, Ohio gov. tests negative

Results raise queries about tests

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday after testing positive earlier in the day before he was to meet with President Donald Trump, according to a statement from his office.

His wife, Fran DeWine, also tested negative, as did staff members. They underwent a different type of test in Columbus; one considered to be more accurate than the rapid-result test that showed DeWine to be positive for COVID-19 just ahead of a planned meeting with Trump in Cleveland.

The conflicting results underscore the problems with both kinds of tests and are bound to spur more questions about them. Many people in the U.S. can’t get lab results on the more accurate version for weeks, rather than the few hours it took the governor to find out.

The governor and first lady plan to undergo another test Saturday, according to the statement.

DeWine, an early advocate among Republicans of wearing masks and other pandemic precautions, said he took a test arranged by the White House in Cleveland as part of standard protocol before he was to meet Trump at an airport. He had planned to join the president on a visit to the Whirlpool Corp. plant in northwest Ohio.

Instead, he received the news he tested positive and returned to central Ohio where he took the other test that showed him to be negative.

The positive result from the first test was “a big surprise to our family,” DeWine said at a late afternoon news conference broadcast from his porch on his farm in Cedarville in southwestern Ohio, where he planned to quarantine for 14 days.

Dewine, 73, said he didn’t know how he would have contracted the coronavirus and that he’s already been spending much of his time at his farm, keeping his distance from family members and staff.

DeWine said he’d received some “not nice texts” Thursday from people claiming the news proves that maskwearing is pointless.