Governor addresses concerns over COVID-19 testing eligibility

ORLANDO, Fla. - Longwood resident Kelly Schumer strongly suspects she has the Coronavirus.

“It’s stressful,” she explained. She says she started feeling ill Saturday.

“By the end of the day, I had a fever of 101.5 and had body aches everywhere. Was a little short of breath,” Schumer said.

She says even with those symptoms and the fact that she has Lupus, she hasn’t been able to get tested.

“They told me that I needed to quarantine obviously and that if I got significantly worse – especially if my breathing got significantly worse that I should call back,” she told FOX 35 News.

Governor Ron DeSantis says the testing criteria for COVID-19 have been updated.

“When this first started the CDC was looking for travel to China, looking connections with that… here’s where we're at now,” DeSantis said in a news conference Tuesday.

According to DeSantis, those eligible for testing include people 65 and older and those with underlying conditions who have COVID19 symptoms.

He also says anyone hospitalized for pneumonia or an unknown cause should be able to take a test.

“When you have some of these folks with symptoms, you don’t need to go into travel history, you don’t go into this or anything like that, they should be given access to tests,” he said.

State Representative Anna Eskamani says not everyone is on the same page.

“We really need clarity from every provider. All doctors need to be aware of these rules. Department of Health workers need to be aware of it as well,” Eskamani said.

Under the new guidelines, it looks like Schumer should be tested.

She says she’ll call her doctor again Wednesday.