WTHI-TV General Manager among thousands invited for state testing

WTHI-TV General Manager among thousands invited for state testing

It hopefully we can come up with some antibody" researchers are trying to figure out how long the coronavirus has been in indiana.

The first round of state testing is happening now.

Good evening and thank you for joining us.

Thousands of hoosiers -- across the state -- are undergoing antibody testing.

That testing is happening right here in vigo county.

It's conducted by the state health department and people are randomly selected to take part.

One of those people is our very own general manager.

News 10's richard solomon begins our coverage of coronavirus in the wabash valley this evening with a closer look at the process.

Richar} the wthi-tv general manager -- todd weber -- is just 1 out of 10 thousand invited for state testing.

The point of the testing is to better measure how long covid-19 has been in the area... and hopefully -- get closer to a vaccine.

Pk} the indiana state department of health sent out 10,000 invitations to hoosiers.

They're working with the indiana university fairbanks school of public health to see who may have antibodies to covid-19.

One of those invites landed in wthi-tv's general manager -- todd weber's -- mailbox.

"i was really kind of excited to get it done because i do feel that certainly it's not normal and so we need to find a cure as much as possible."

I meet weber at the testing site on ivy tech's terre haute campus.

Nats: "are you nervous?

Am i nervous no..not at all?

No."

First... weber had to check in.

Nats: "have you had any of the following symptoms?"

Health care workers asked weber background questions like if he had a fever... or if he had been around anyone who's had covid-19.

Then... it was time for testing.

Nats: "alright, so i need you to pull down your mask."

A swab was inserted into weber's nose... the results of this test will show if weber currently is infected with the virus.

Nats: todd crying after that... they took a blood sample.

This will be used to determine if weber had the virus in the past and now has antibodies.

The entire process took less than 10 minutes.

Weber says -- for everyone who got that same email -- it's your duty to get out and get tested.

"at the end of the day, i mean look, the more people that get tested to see if they had it then hopefully, you know, we can come up with some antibody cure that's going to help with this."

Richar} it will take 72 hours before weber gets his results.

This is the first wave for testing.

It runs through april 29th.

Reporting in the newsroom, richard solomon, news 10.