E-Paper
UK announces new antibody tests for Covid-19 patients: All you need to know
The tests will be rolled out from Tuesday for up to 8000 Covid-19 positive people per day.
The British government on Sunday announced a new nationwide surveillance scheme for antibodies, that will make available, for free, antibody tests at home for people infected with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). "Antibody testing will be rolled out to thousands of adults per day, across the UK. If you've tested positive for Covid-19, I urge you to opt-in to help us better understand the effectiveness of the vaccines and develop future treatments," health secretary Sajid Javid tweeted.
Here's all you need to know about this new initiative:
(1.) Under the scheme, which comes into effect from Tuesday, any citizen who is aged over 18 can opt for this antibody testing while booking PCR test to see if they are infected with Covid-19.
(2.) Those who return a positive test result will then receive "two-finger prick" antibody tests at home. These are to be completed and sent back for laboratory analysis.
(3.) Each day, a maximum of 8000 people, who opted for the antibody test and subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus disease, will receive the test kit.
(4.) The tests will be offered by the UK Health Security Agency, which will work with the National Health Service (NHS) Test and Trace testing services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to monitor the level of antibodies among positive Covid-19 cases across the UK.
(5.) There are two stages in this test. The first stage will determine the level of antibodies a person had before current positive Covid-19 test result. It is to be taken "as soon as possible" after testing positive for the viral disease.
(6.) The second stage is for 28 days after testing posit. It will determine the antibodies generated in response to the infection.
(7.) The two sets of data will then be compared to study the proportion of those who caught the virus despite developing antibodies through vaccination, or while they earlier had Covid-19.
(8.) However, those who test positive for antibodies should continue following the norms as a positive antibody test does not mean they are immune from Covid-19.
