CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With Gov. Mike DeWine

Interview

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KEILAR: And joining me now is Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine.

Governor, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

DEWINE: Good to be with you. Thank you.

KEILAR: You say there are 100,000 undiagnosed coronavirus cases in your state and that your team of medical experts in Ohio has told you that a number of undiagnosed cases in your state will double every six days.

So, how many Ohioans are you preparing for potentially becoming infected?

DEWINE: We don't think we're different than any other state. And that number is just based on modeling.

What the experts tell us is that we will end up, in Ohio and across the country, with 40 to 70 percent of our population who eventually gets this. And so that's just -- you take those numbers back.

And the point of that was just to illustrate to people that we have got a lot of people walking around in Ohio who are positive who've not been tested. Some don't know it. Some may never know it.

[09:20:00]

So, this is all to explain to people how fast that this moves.

And the example, of course, is Italy. A couple weeks ago, they just had a handful of cases, and look what's going on now.

So, we're getting ready. Our hospitals are getting ready. I made a plea yesterday to our dentists and to our veterinarians. As far as personal protection equipment that doctors wear, it's the same. Some of it's the same. And so we asked them to not do elective surgeries.

We're asking doctors the same thing. And we're asking patients, don't go in for elective surgery.

So, you're trying to store this up. We're trying to get ready.

But the most important thing I think we can do, in addition to that, is try to, as they say, flatten this curve and spread this out over a period of time. That's why we closed the schools. That's why we issued last week the order, no more people coming together in more than 100.

We have closed the casinos. We're doing the things to try to keep people apart.

KEILAR: Yes.

DEWINE: But, as I have explained to the Ohioans, we have to do it ourselves. We have to be conscious ourselves.

And that's just as important as what government does, probably more important.

KEILAR: And as you -- you -- because you say there are 100,000 undiagnosed coronavirus cases, and that's part of the reason...

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DEWINE: And that's -- look, that's an estimate. I don't -- obviously no one knows. We're not doing -- we're just really kicking in the testing.

The Cleveland Clinic, for example, is testing now a significant number. We're going to see other hospitals do that. So we're going to see these numbers dramatically go up. We don't know how many we have exactly.

But we know there are a lot of people out there that are carrying this. And part of the message is, for young people, those in their 20s, for example, this may not hit you as hard, and you may be willing to take some risk in social -- who you see, but, remember, if you go see your grandmother...

KEILAR: That's right.

DEWINE: ... you may be carrying that to her.

That's why we closed the schools. Kids have been, I wouldn't say immune from this, but kids have done pretty well.

KEILAR: Well, can -- so, let me -- I want to ask you about, because the CDC said that school closures of two to four weeks are actually unlikely to have an impact on mitigating the spread of this virus.

So, you do have schools closed there in Ohio for three weeks. I wonder if there's a possibility that Ohio schools are going to be closed, actually, for the remainder of the school year. Is that -- is that possible?

DEWINE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Look, the projections -- and, again, this is all projections -- I'm just going by what medical experts are telling us. This may not peak until the latter part of April or May.

So, we have informed the superintendents, while we have closed schools for three weeks, that the odds are that this is going to go on a lot longer. And it would not surprise me at all if schools did not open again this year.

KEILAR: President Trump said on Friday the administration was working to set up drive-through testing sites. I wonder if anyone in the administration has contacted you. Or have you asked about Ohio getting any of these drive-through testing sites?

DEWINE: Well, we're starting to do that in Ohio. We're starting to do that already in Ohio.

And, look, what we have asked the administration to do, they...

KEILAR: But you're doing that on your own in Ohio. Are you...

DEWINE: Sure.

KEILAR: Are you hearing from the administration on this as part of what they're talking about?

DEWINE: Well, sure, when they're talking about it.

But, look, we're moving forward. I mean, we have the responsibility in Ohio...

KEILAR: Are they talking to you? So, they're not talking to you about it? You're doing it on your own, is what you're saying?

DEWINE: Yes, we're doing -- we're doing it our own.

Look, my Department of Health may have had contact with them. I'm not sure whether they have or not.

KEILAR: OK.

DEWINE: But we're -- we're moving ahead.

The administration -- something very important for us, when we close the schools, we want to make sure that kids continue to get food. So we -- Department of Agriculture gave us a waiver within 24 hours, so we can actually take this food, this normal school lunch program, and take it out to kids, distribute it in different areas.

And some school districts in Ohio are actually going to take that out, put it on a bus, and travel around and distributing it. So each school is making up its own mind how to do it. But we have had to get a waiver from the federal government. And we were happy to get that waiver.

KEILAR: Your Florida counterpart, Governor Ron DeSantis, has said that the president should consider restricting domestic travels from states that are suffering coronavirus outbreaks. He's saying that the movement of people within the U.S. has made containment difficult.

I mean, I would also like to highlight I'm aware, certainly as a military spouse, DOD has actually banned not just members of the military, but family members, like myself, we cannot travel domestically.

Do you agree that that's something that should be put in place?

DEWINE: I would leave that up to the medical experts. Look, I think it's important that all of us rely on the experts and

the modeling and what they tell us. I have advised anybody in my family, don't travel. I think that family -- families need to restrict the travel.

We have seen a lot of businesses in Ohio that have said, no travel, you're not traveling anymore. We're seeing more and more businesses that are -- that are closing, doing a lot of things right remotely.

[09:25:00]

So, these are all things that business can do, all things that individuals can do. And it's just important. And it's -- you talked about closing a school for three weeks might not have any impact.

I -- what I have learned from talking with the experts is, it's not just one thing. You have got to do a lot of different things. And you have got to do them early. And that's what -- that's what we're trying to do in Ohio.

KEILAR: Governor DeWine, thank you so much for joining us.

DEWINE: Good to be with you. Thank you very much.

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