Ohio’s coronavirus test positivity rate these days is averaging about 25%, but that’s almost certainly lower than reality, Gov. Mike DeWine said.
“Look, we know there’s a lot of people who are testing positive. Is that number probably higher than we’re reporting? Yes, because people who are doing their own tests are not reporting that,” DeWine said Wednesday, during a coronavirus briefing in which he announced he had called up an additional 1,250 Ohio National Guard members to assist hospitals.
Three types of coronavirus tests are used to identify the virus: PCR genetic tests, molecular testing of nucleic acid and antigen tests.
PCR, molecular tests and sometimes antigen tests are administered at pharmacies, doctor’s offices, mass testing sites, urgent care centers or community health centers. Laboratories run those tests and automatically report the results to the state, under rules established at the beginning of the pandemic.
On Monday, the most recent day for which the Department of Health had positivity data, 25.1% of the lab-run tests came back positive. The seven-day, rolling average from Monday was 22.2% for those tests.
It gets trickier when tests are administered at home, which are usually rapid antigen tests that people get for free from the state, from libraries and public health departments, or purchase at drug stores.
Some of the results of those tests get reported to the state. Sometimes they do not.
“If someone has picked up a free proctored at-home test provided by ODH at a local health department, library, or other partner, these tests are conducted in a guided manner through a virtual appointment, and the results are read and reported by the telehealth provider, and in turn appear on the dashboard,” said Ohio Department of Health spokeswoman Alicia Shoults.
The CDC wants people who purchase over-the-counter tests from drug stores to report any positive results to their doctor or local health department, so they can report the results to the state, Shoults said.
Last week, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health launched a hotline for residents to report positive test results using at-home testing kits, even if the test isn’t proctored.
However, DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said it’s guaranteed that some people don’t make that phone call about their positive result.
“We know that a lot of the quick tests that people are buying, they are not reporting,” DeWine said.
But even for people who don’t report, the tests are vital, “so they can make rational choices. And that piece of information is very, very important.”
Ohio was one of the first states to enter a contract with Abbott Laboratories to distribute rapid antigen tests for free in September 2020. Even two years into the pandemic, not every state offers free tests. President Joe Biden announced last week that the federal government will distribute 500 million rapid tests for free, although with a population of 330 million people, that’s not even two tests per person in the U.S.
Even in Ohio, free and purchased rapid tests have become difficult to find.
Ohio has distributed a total of 5.2 million rapid tests, including 1.4 million in December, as the highly contagious omicron variant began to spread and people gathered during the holidays.
Currently, Ohioans are taking about 40,000 free rapid tests a day. About 250,000 Ohioans took those tests during the week leading up to Christmas, Vanderhoff said.
“There’s been critical demand,” he said. “We’ve been racing to get those tests to people to meet that demand.”
At the Ohio National Guard-supported testing site at the W.O. Walker Building in University Circle, 10524 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, about 36% of tests are coming back positive, said Dr. Robert Wyllie, Cleveland Clinic’s chief of medical operations.
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