Coronavirus Roche antibody testing approved by Public Health - how it works and accuracy rates

The first coronavirus antibody test that could help ease lockdown in the UK has been given the go-ahead by Public Health England.

No10 is now keen to get its hands on "as many of these as possible" after the potentially game-changing kit was developed by Swiss healthcare company Roche.

A COVID-19 antibody test can detect if a person had coronavirus before and has since recovered. The test works this out by testing your blood for coronavirus antibodies to see if they have already beaten the virus and gained some immunity to it.

A small needle is inserted into a vein of an arm and soon, blood is seen flowing through a tube into a vial for a novel coronavirus antibody test.

The vial, filled with blood, is put into a centrifuge after the blood clots and spun for about 10 to 15 minutes, with the serum from the blood cells emerging on top and the platelets underneath.

Once the serum and the platelets are fully separated, the vial is ready to be sent to the lab for testing.

Unlike tests to diagnose diseases, antibody tests show who has been infected and recovered.

The body makes antibodies in response to many illnesses and infections, including other coronaviruses.

New blood tests are being developed to identify antibodies unique to SARS-CoV-2, the official name of the new coronavirus.

Read more
Coronavirus hope as new ‘100% accurate’ antibody tests ‘to be rolled out in 2 weeks’ to tell Brits if they’ve had bug
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11540780/coronavirus-antibody-tests-in-two-weeks/

Nearly all coronavirus patients develop ‘protective’ antibodies within weeks, docs discover
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11602593/recovers-coronavirus-develops-antibodies-weeks/

Biotech giant Roche ‘develops coronavirus antibody test that WORKS – and it’ll be available in UK by May’
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11425350/roche-develops-coronavirus-antibody-test-that-works-available-may/

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