Coronavirus: Screening

(asked on 2nd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who is eligible for antibody testing for covid-19; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 29th July 2020

On 21 May the Government announced plans for a national roll-out of antibody testing in the National Health Service and care sector. Since the end of May, lab-based ELISA antibody tests have been available to all NHS staff that want one. For care staff, antibody testing will be rolled out in a phased way across regions in England. All NHS and care staff in England are being offered an antibody test, with patients and care residents eligible at their clinician’s request. Any expansion of this programme will be announced at the appropriate time.

The Government is also using antibody tests as part of several surveillance studies. We are conducting some of the biggest surveys in the world, using home-based swab testing kits and lab-based tests to find out what proportion of the population have already had the virus. These surveillance studies are designed to understand the current and future prevalence of infection in England.

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