What is the test and can you get it?

A test to find out whether people have been infected with coronavirus in the past has been approved by health officials.

Here are the key questions surrounding the new test. What is the new test? Pharmaceutical giant Roche has developed a test that can tell whether somebody has ever had coronavirus. The test involves taking a small sample of blood and testing it for antibodies, which will indicate exposure to coronavirus. Public Health England (PHE) has evaluated the new Roche test and has approved it as being safe and reliable for widespread use.

How reliable is it?

Very. The test picks up 100 per cent of people who have had coronavirus. This means it has 100 per cent sensitivity.

It also has a specificity of over 99.8 per cent, meaning it picks up virtually all people who have not had coronavirus.

A test that is 100 per cent specific means all healthy individuals are correctly identified as healthy. There are no false positives.

What if I’ve never had any symptoms of Covid-19?

It doesn’t matter. Experts believe a proportion of people who have had Covid-19 never actually develop symptoms. The new test can identify people who have had coronavirus even if they have never had any indication they are infected.

If the test shows I’ve had Covid-19, am I now immune from it? Scientists are unsure and there is still a lot to learn about coronavirus.

There has been some suggestion that immunity could last for two to three years, but more work needs to be done.

Can I get the new test?

Not yet. The Government plans to first roll out the test to frontline workers such as those in health and social care. It is hoped the test will become available to the wider public, although it is unclear whether this will be via the NHS or through commercial websites. it might take a good bit longer than that to get capacity for the test.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the idea of an “immunity certificate” was still under consideration if science showed people developed immunity to Covid-19.

Professor John Newton, national co-ordinator of the UK Coronavirus Testing Programme, said although it was still unclear to what extent the presence of antibodies indicated immunity, the test was a “very positive development”.

Professor Pennington added: “We need to find out how good the test really is and it shouldn’t be difficult to get that information and they’d have to buy it as it’s made by a commercial company.

“I would be very surprised if this test was a ‘game changer’ – it would be very useful to know who’s had the virus as that would give us a clue as to how many cases there have been under the radar in Scotland.

“The test available now [in Scotland] is a very good one that can tell if someone has the virus and we should be testing people in care homes to make sure their not carrying it in with them unbeknownst to them. I would hope the top priority for the Scottish Government continues to be the test that is available – developing capacity so they can do the ‘test, trace and isolate’ as soon as possible and the antibody test would come later.”

Roche said it could supply hundreds of thousands of the tests each week. It runs on fullyautomated equipment already widely installed by Roche at NHS sites across the UK.

The pharmaceutical firm said it would prioritise tests for distribution via the NHS before looking at how they may be sold to individuals.

Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, said the development of the antibody test was “a good result”. He said antibodies “stick around probably for a year or two” adding that the Roche test was the “best approved test available on the market now”.

But he said it was unclear whether having Covid-19 gave immunity against all future infection with the virus.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Health Protection Scotland, with key partners, are assessing a number of antibody tests including the Roche Diagnostics antibody test, in order to identify which will work best in Scotland. We are working across the UK, to ensure the joint development of an antibody testing strategy. While this work is progressing rapidly, it is too early to confirm if any one test will be part of the solution for Scotland.”

Giving evidence to the Scottish affairs committee at Westminster, Mr Jack said: “We have a centralised PPE facility in Liverpool where we have supplied millions of units of PPE to the Scottish NHS and I would expect to have some centralised purchasing for this antibody test.

“It would be a very good thing and it should be fairly distributed throughout the UK, and I shall be arguing for that strongly.”