Coronavirus : UAE launches new anti-body test kit for COVID-19

UAE has launched a new anti-body test kit, which detect if people have developed antibodies against Covid-19 and can be used to assist with the mass return of employees to offices.

On Tuesday, the National Reference Laboratory, part of Mubadala Healthcare’s network, announced it would be releasing the tests, known as serology tests kits, to the local market.

The tests work by detecting antibodies in the blood. This tells medics if the individual has previously had the virus, regardless of how severe the symptoms were.

Dr Basel Altrabulsi, chief medical officer of the lab, described the tests was “a powerful tool” to help front-line workers.

“When you go back and design a return of work policy one of the first thing you do is risk assessments. If you have serology tests then it will tell you the exposure rates of people. Now you will have an educated guess when people are returning to work by identifying the workforce that could potentially be immune.”

If tests indicate that the majority of the workforce has not had the virus, employers will need to ensure extra measures are in place to avoid staff being infected, particularly medical and vital sector workers.

The main test currently used to check for a Covid-19 infection in screening centres is PCR.

The PCR test detects whether the virus is present in a specific sample, whereas the serology test can tell if a person has ever had Covid-19.

The advantage of the serology test is that it is faster as results can be processed within hours. It also boasts a 99.5 per cent accuracy rate.

However the drawback is that it is currently unclear if people who recover from the coronavirus are immune from being reinfected. Local health authorities have previously said there have been no cases of reinfection in the UAE.

“The test will tell you who was infected before. We are hesitant to say that they are immune because we still don’t know but we assume they have immunity because the rate of reinfection is very low. If this proves to be more true, then these people can be put back into their work environment and you can identify the high risk groups and you can for example relax restrictions on certain people,” Dr Altrabulsi said.