UK antibody test to be rolled out in 'days and weeks to come'

Ewan Somerville15 May 2020

Britain’s new antibody test will be “rapidly rolled out” in weeks, England’s deputy chief medical officer has said.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said the breakthrough accurate test, which can reveal whether someone has ever had the virus, would be available to the public “in the days and weeks to come”.

Boris Johnson hailed the new test, developed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, as a “game-changer”. Public Health England called it a “very positive development”.

NHS chiefs have approved the test after officials judged previous attempts as not reliable enough.

Getty Images

Ministers are understood to hope an “immunity certificate” from taking the test could hold the key to Britain easing its lockdown further.

Prof Van-Tam said the “incredibly important” test would be rolled out to frontline health workers in NHS and social care first, before stretching to the general public.

“I anticipate that it will be rapidly rolled out in the days and weeks to come – as soon as it is practical,” he told the Downing Street press briefing.

Boris Johnson has hailed the new test as a 'game changer' 
PA

“I also anticipate that the focus will be on the national health service and on carers in the first instance.”

Experts believe those who have had Covid-19 develop a degree of immunity, but Prof Van-Tam said it would “take time” to understand more about immunity

Number 10 said the new antibody test would “certainly” be available on the NHS, but commercial discussions with Roche are ongoing.

Roche says the test is 100 per cent accurate in showing if someone has previously had the disease and vowed to supply hundreds of thousands each week. PHE approved the test after analysis at the Porton Down lab last week.

Prof John Newton, national coordinator of the UK coronavirus testing programme, said: "This is a very positive development because such a highly specific antibody test is a very reliable marker of past infection.

Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast

"This in turn may indicate some immunity to future infection, although the extent to which the presence of antibodies indicates immunity remains unclear."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in