Coronavirus: Screening

(asked on 5th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of using serology testing to establish the length of protection provided by covid-19 vaccines.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 22nd March 2021

Public Health England (PHE) is evaluating the effectiveness and length of protection afforded by COVID-19 vaccines in terms of disease, hospitalisations and deaths as set out in the COVID-19 vaccine surveillance strategy.

Although serological testing is supporting the evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines, currently without a correlate of protection, serological testing by itself cannot provide estimates of the length of protection from COVID-19 vaccines.

PHE’s SIREN study, a prospective cohort study of almost 40,000 healthcare workers from 132 National Health Service sites, collects regular serum samples on participants following COVID-19 vaccination, to monitor antibody responses to vaccination which has the potential to establish a serological correlate of protection.

Reticulating Splines