The state of Ohio will be making rapid test vaccines available in K-12 schools, according to an announcement from Gov. Mike Dewine on Thursday.
DeWine said that the move was meant to “increase confidence and safety in our schools.”
“Soon we’ll be shipping more than 200,000 of the at-home tests to our Educational Service Centers, and I encourage our school districts to take advantage of the resource,” DeWine said.
The test used will be the BinaxNOW Home Test, which takes about 15 minutes to return results, according to information on the Ohio Department of Health website.
Making rapid testing available in schools is part of a push to make rapid tests more accessible for Ohioans. The initiative has four key parts, DeWine said.
1️⃣ Since December, we have provided federally qualified health centers with more than 150,000 rapid tests that are administered on-site.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) March 11, 2021
3️⃣ We're partnering with our public libraries to make at-home tests available in more Ohio communities. During the first two weeks of this initiative, we have had nearly 120 library systems tell us they want to partner on this effort, representing more than 250 sites.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) March 11, 2021
NEW ➡We're making rapid testing available in K-12 schools to increase confidence and safety in our schools. Soon we'll be shipping more than 200,000 of the at-home tests to our Educational Service Centers, and I encourage our school districts to take advantage of the resource.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) March 11, 2021
In addition to providing more than 150,000 rapid tests since December, the state has worked with local health departments to partner with schools, non-profit organizations and first responders to administer the rapid tests.
The state has also partnered with public libraries to increase accessibility for Ohioans to the rapid tests.
“During the first two weeks of this initiative, we have had nearly 120 library systems tell us they want to partner on this effort, representing more than 250 sites,” DeWine said on Twitter. “Between the library and local health department partnerships, at-home testing is available in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties, including in some areas that had very little access to testing earlier in the pandemic.”
For more information about rapid testing for the coronavirus, visit www.gettestedohio.com
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Jordy Pair is a reporter with The Ohio Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair.
