CNN "The Situation Room" - Interview with Mike DeWine

Interview

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Joining us now is the governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine. Governor, thanks for spending a few moments with us. I know you're incredibly busy over there.

I don't know if you heard the top of our show this hour, but the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, has just announced that some businesses in his state including nail salons, barbershops, gyms, among others, will reopen as early as Friday.

We're hearing similar things from the governors of Tennessee and South Carolina. Do you think these are appropriate moves right now? I know you don't want to criticize your fellow governors, but is Ohio, your state, anywhere near making those kinds of dramatic decisions?

MIKE DEWINE, GOVERNOR OF OHIO: Well, Wolf, what we've done is we put a business group together, CEOs of not only big companies but smaller companies in Ohio, and charged them with charting a course for us, you know, who could open first and what would be the best practices to follow as these companies do it because it's important for us to move the economy forward.

But if we're going to do that, we've got to move forward steadily. What we don't want is a spike where three weeks later, after something opens up and then we see the spike go up like that and then we've got to retrench, because what businesses told me, particularly small businesses, they said, look, we want to get back in as soon as we can, but the worst thing would be for us to start back and then stop and we would have to close again.

So we want to do this in a way that is, frankly, consistent with what the president's guidelines are. I think he outlined a good plan. We're consistent with that. Beginning May 1st, we're going to start easing out. We hope to be in a position where we're never going to go back. And we just slowly move forward. And we've learned a lot. We've learned from businesses that have been

deemed essential. And we've seen what they have done in the last four weeks. And some of them have done just a phenomenal job. They've been really, really careful.

They've had the social distancing. They've put barriers where they need to put barriers. They've had people wear masks. And that's the new reality. I just got off the phone with a group of businessmen and women from Cincinnati and one of the things I said to them is, look, we want to move forward. We want to get people back working. That's very, very important.

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But we've got to do the other things as we do it. We've got to keep the social distancing. People need to -- when they're in the factory or they're in their business, retail business, they need to wear a mask. So, these are all things that, you know, that we need to do. So we've got to do it very carefully, and that's how we advance the economy.

BLITZER: A mask and gloves too, I should add.

DEWINE: Yes, gloves too, absolutely right.

BLITZER: What do you believe -- Governor, what do you believe will be the first things that you'll be able to reopen in Ohio or whenever you start to do so?

DEWINE: Well, I think one of the things we're going to do is ease up on our hospitals. You know, we had to cut off elective surgeries. We're going to ease back, maybe not with elective surgeries at first but maybe other procedures that have been curtailed, let them do that.

Stuff that does not use up too much of the personal protection equipment, which was our real concern, we're going to do that. We're also looking at businesses that are very, very similar, manufacturing companies for example, that are very similar to ones that are open.

One was essential we allowed it to be open, the other was not as essential, but they're really doing the same type of stuff and the ability to keep the social distancing might be the same. So, we're going to look to those things that have the best opportunity to keep the social distancing, open them up, see how that works, and we hope not look back.

But the reality is, this virus is still with us. It's going to be with us for a long time. We have to be very careful. We have to keep the social distancing.

BLITZER: We know, governor, that testing is really the key to reopening the state economy, to reopening the United States and getting back to some sense of normality.

The president says testing for coronavirus, in his words, is a local thing. Did you hear a different message from the vice president earlier today? I know you and your fellow governors had a lengthy conversation with the vice president.

DEWINE: We did. You know, those are always good conversations -- very, very open and very nonpartisan. The vice president is great about taking the information, also trying to get out information. Great exchange.

I actually talked to the vice president on Sunday about the testing issue. One of the things that I was concerned about is one of the things that keeps our capacity from going up in Ohio, at our labs, where they have the capacity, but they don't have the reagents.

And that's being rationed not by the federal government. It's being rationed basically by the market. There's just not enough reagent. So what I encouraged the FDA to do is to approve some of these plans, some other companies that are trying to come on the market. They've got a little different recipe for the reagent.

And so if we can get those to move forward, that will help open that up. I talked to the vice president about that and he certainly understood that.

BLITZER: I know a lot of the governors say they have very smooth, very strong conversations with the vice president, not necessarily with the president. But that's something we can discuss down the road. Governor, thank you so much for joining us. Good luck to everyone in Ohio.

DWEINE: Wolf, thank you. Thank you very much.

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