Antibody kits may be ready ‘within weeks’ to track infection levels

Government offers hope of tests by May or June after options from private firms shown to be inaccurate

Laura Donnelly

ANTIBODY tests could be available as soon as late May, the Government’s testing tsar has said.

Prof John Newton, the national testing co-ordinator, said the Government was “optimistic” that the tests – which assess whether a person is likely to have developed some immunity to coronavirus – would be on offer when they were needed.

“We are optimistic that we will have a good antibody test when we need it, which of course is a little later in the progress of the pandemic. Not many people would test positive for an antibody test if we had one now,” he said.

Prof Newton told the BBC: “The people who are developing it are talking about having tests available for the end of May, early June. There are antibody tests available now; it’s just that we think there’s potential to get a better antibody test, and we’re not rolling out a test until we’ve got those.”

Last week, ministers announced plans to test up to 300,000 people for coronavirus over the next year in a bid to track levels of the infection and immunity among the population.

The pilots will include a new antibody test, being pioneered by Oxford University, which aims to assess how many people have developed protection against the virus. Most of the tests will involve patients being swabbed regularly to check if they have it.

But, adults from about 1,000 households will also provide a blood sample to try to determine what proportion of the population has developed antibodies.

Last month, health officials had to row back after claiming antibody tests would be widely available to the public within days.

A purchase of 3.5million tests from China were found not to work, and the Government is now trying to claw back its money.

Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, last week expressed cautious optimism about progress on developing tests, as the Government announced 25,000 people would be recruited initially for the first round of trials.

Scientists are racing to manufacture an antibody test that can tell people whether they have had the virus and built up possible immunity.

So far, none of the available tests on the market has passed a government validation panel.

The Oxford test works by analysing antibodies in blood obtained through a finger-prick kit that can be used at home. It would give positive or negative results for the Covid-19 antibody in about an hour or less. Existing kits – already for sale in the UK by private companies – have been shown to be, at times, very inaccurate. They work least well where symptoms for coronavirus have been mild.

A successful antibody test would allow the Government to establish the scale of so-called “herd immunity” and enable a rapid easing of the lockdown for people who would know with certainty that they had coronavirus and could not catch it again.

However, there are doubts about how effective and long-lasting immunity is for those infected with Covid-19. Immunity might only last six months to a year, but that could buy time for a vaccine to be found.