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April 18, 2020 05:34 pm

University of Washington Lab Will Begin Testing of Thousands For COVID-19 Antibodies

GeekWire reports:The University of Washington School of Medicine's Virology Lab is reporting encouraging results from trial runs of a new test from Abbott Laboratories that detects the antibodies created by people who have had COVID-19, whether they knew they had it or not. "This is a really fantastic test," Keith Jerome, who leads UW Medicine's virology program, told reporters today. He said UW's lab could process 4,000 samples per day starting next week, and conceivably ramp up to 14,000 samples per day within a couple of weeks. The test will be made available through health care providers, in medical clinics or perhaps through workplaces... Epidemiologists say knowing who has had the virus will be key to tracking the true spread of COVID-19, and giving assurances to people who are returning to school and work — particularly in front-line jobs ranging from first responders and health care workers to grocery store clerks. "It's possible this could be part of a back-to-work process," Jerome said. It's not yet clear how much immunity people develop to COVID-19 in the course of fighting off the virus, but if SARS-CoV-2 behaves like other coronaviruses, people with antibodies should have at least some protection from re-infection... There's also a chance that being able to detect antibodies for COVID-19 will speed the development of vaccines in the months ahead. 1 million of the tests will be shipped this week in the U.S., and up to 4 million in the month of April, GeekWire reports. And by June the company plans to be shipping 20 million tests per month.

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