(Reuters) – British ministers are making plans to distribute millions of free tests for antibodies to the coronavirus after a UK government-backed version approved its first major tests, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Friday.
Fingerprint tests, which can indicate in 20 minutes whether a person has been exposed to the coronavirus, were found to be 98.6% accurate in secret human trials conducted in June, the newspaper reported.
He added that the test was developed by the United Kingdom Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC), a partnership between the University of Oxford and the UK’s leading diagnostic firms.
Britain’s only antibody tests approved so far have involved sending blood samples to laboratories for analysis, which can take days, The Telegraph said.
Anticipating regulatory approval in the coming weeks, tens of thousands of prototypes have already been manufactured in factories across the UK, the report added.
Ministers hope the AbC-19 lateral flow test will be available for use in a mass detection program before the end of the year, the newspaper reported.
“It was found to be 98.6 percent accurate, and that’s very good news,” said Chris Hand, leader of the UK-RTC, according to The Telegraph.
“We are now expanding our partners to produce hundreds of thousands of doses every month,” Hand said, adding that the government health department is in talks with UK-RTC about buying millions of tests before the end of the year.
The tests are likely to be free and ordered online rather than sold in supermarkets, according to plans cited by the newspaper.
“While these tests will help us better understand how coronavirus is spreading across the country, we still don’t know if the antibodies indicate immunity against reinfection or transmission,” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Assistance told the newspaper.
Kanishka Singh’s report in Bangalore; Editing by Sandra Maler
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