Ohio governor Mike DeWine announced Thursday morning that he had tested positive for the coronavirus — but on Thursday night, he said a second test came back negative. The reason for the discrepancy between the test results was not immediately clear.
DeWine’s initial test results were reported ahead of a planned meeting with President Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. Instead of meeting with Mr. Trump, DeWine returned to Columbus and was ultimately tested for coronavirus a second time.
The Ohio governor’s office said in a statement that the second test was a PCR test, which the office described as “extremely sensitive, as well as specific, for the virus.” When DeWine was tested earlier in the day, an antigen test was used.
The PCR tests for both the governor and his wife were run twice, and came back negative both times, the office said.
“We feel confident in the results from Wexner Medical Center,” the office said of the PCR test. “This is the same PCR test that has been used over 1.6 million times in Ohio by hospitals and labs all over the state.” It did not say how often antigen tests are used in the state.
Officials will be “working with the manufacturer to have a better understanding of how the discrepancy between these two tests could have occurred,” according to a statement.
The governor and his wife will take another PCR test on Saturday to further confirm their results.
