COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Tuesday, the day that gyms, motor vehicle bureaus, and pools reopened, Gov. Mike DeWine chose to focus on the large number of deaths that have occurred in Ohio's nursing homes.
"Nursing homes contain some of the most vulnerable members of our society," DeWine said.
He said he is challenging his team to solve this problem with a new effort.
The Ohio National Guard will start "congregate care unified response teams" that will consist of 10 members, with 14 teams statewide to conduct testing in nursing homes starting this week.
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The goal is to test all staff and to test certain residents based on a clinical assessment. The decision to test residents will be clinically-driven and will target those who have been likely exposed to COVID-19.
"All staff in all Ohio nursing facilities will be tested. This will help nursing home administrators understand the status of the virus in their facilities and will help isolate the virus and help keep it from infecting their community," DeWine said.
"Testing will occur in facilities where residents or workers have confirmed or assumed positive cases. Testing will be conducted on all staff, and the testing of residents will be based on a clinically-driven strategy that targets those who have likely been exposed to COVID-19."
"We will start with the nursing homes that have had the most COVID activity," DeWine said, with the goal of having testing in all of the nursing homes in the state.
There are 960 nursing homes in the state of Ohio, and about two-thirds of them have a COVID-19 history, the governor said.
"My only order to our team is to deploy the resources we have, as quickly as we can, with the goal of saving as many lives as possible," DeWine said.
The governor said the results will be reported weekly.
DeWine also said that all residents and staff members of the state’s developmental centers will be tested. Medically-trained members of the Ohio National Guard will be at Ohio's eight developmental centers this week to test residents and their staff.
"This is an important effort to try to limit the spread of COVID-19 in congregate care settings," he said.