Which Ohioans are first in line for coronavirus testing?
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Now that Ohio Governor Mike Dewine has announced developments that he says should make more COVID-19 testing available, the state has now issued guidelines to determine who gets tested first. Topping that list are patients hospitalized with coronavirus and the healthcare worker on the front lines treating those patients.
Experts have long been saying that the ability to conduct widespread testing for COVID-19 is key to ending the pandemic in Ohio and elsewhere.
A new partnership announced last week between the state of Ohio, Thermo Fisher, and ROE Dental Scientific will allow for a steady supply of testing reagent and swabs, according to DeWine.
On Monday, state health officials released the following guidance prioritizing the criteria patients must meet for testing.
PRIORITY 1
Ohioans with symptoms who are:
- Hospitalized
- Healthcare workers. This includes behavioral health providers, home health workers, nursing facility and assisted living employees, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), housekeepers, and others who work in healthcare and congregate living settings. *
PRIORITY 2
Ohioans with symptoms who are:
- Residents of long-term care/congregate living settings.
- First responders/public health workers/critical infrastructure workers.
- 65 and older.
- Living with underlying conditions. Consideration should be given for testing racial and ethnic minorities with underlying illness, as they are at increased risk for COVID-19 and more severe illness.
Ohioans without symptoms who are:
- Residents or staff directly exposed during an outbreak in long-term care/congregate living settings.
Other Ohioans who are:
- Designated by public health officials to evaluate/manage community outbreaks (such as in workplaces, other large gatherings)
PRIORITY 3
Ohioans with and without symptoms who are:
- Receiving essential surgeries/procedures, including those that were reassessed after a delay.
- Receiving other medically necessary procedures not requiring an overnight stay/inpatient hospital admission, as defined by their providers' process for COVID-19 testing.
*Congregate living settings are those where more than six people live and where there is a propensity for rapid person-to-person spread of infectious disease. (Some examples are assisted living/nursing centers; Ohio Veterans Homes; residential facilities for mental health/substance use treatment; psychiatric hospitals/group homes; centers/facilities/group homes for people with intellectual disabilities; homeless and domestic violence shelters; youth detention centers; prisons; and jails.)
