How antibody testing will help the fight against covid in wales

Antibody testing has gone relatively unnoticed compared to the so-called antigen test during the course of the pandemic – yet it could prove extremely important in future. Health correspondent Mark Smith reports...

DURING the course of the pandemic, daily figures have been released on the number of people in Wales who have been tested for coronavirus.

The so-called antigen test, which tells you if you currently have the virus, has been carried out more than 343,000 times on key workers and members of the public since March.

Some 17,000 have been returned as positive to date, and sadly more than 1,500 people have gone on to lose their lives.

But while this type of test – and the numbers being carried out each day – are widely publicised and scrutinised, another testing regime has gone relatively unnoticed.

The antibody test, which has now been used as many as 38,000 times in Wales, discovers whether someone has had Covid-19 in the past.

Antibodies are produced by the body in response to an infection and can usually be found in the blood after around two weeks after catching it.

According to Dr Robin Howe, the incident director for the Covid-19 outbreak response at Public Health Wales, there are two ways antibody testing is undertaken.

“One is by a blood test, like any other blood test. A needle goes into the arm so a few millilitres of blood can be taken. This is then sent to one of the laboratories around Wales that can test for antibodies. The other is via a lateral flow device, a point-of-care test which just requires a finger prick and then gives the results within 10 minutes or so on the spot.”

Dr Howe said all of the people recorded in the official Welsh Govern