COLUMBUS — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday “a new partnership involving Abbott and eMed to bring rapid, reliable testing into the home” as Ohio will purchase at least 2 million at-home BinaxNow COVID-19 rapid antigen tests that can be self-administered, with results in about 15 minutes.
“Through an agreement with eMed to provide telehealth services, an individual who uses one of these tests can be guided by a proctor and will get the results in minutes, without having to visit a testing location,” he said. “This new agreement allows communities to more aggressively test for COVID-19 than at any other time during this pandemic. This $50 million investment of CARES Act funding will help make testing more broadly available.”
No timeline or method of distribution was announced.
He added that, “Out of any 200 Ohioans, at least one has tested positive for COVID during the past two weeks. We still have more than one out of four patients who are COVID positive in our ICUs.”
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said that Ohio received a donation of 250,000 disposable masks from the Home Depot.
