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Antibody tests to be provided on NHS under new deal as trials for 20-minute coronavirus test begin

Antibody tests may help people return to work

Policy Correspondent

Thursday 21 May 2020 15:00 BST

Blood samples to test for COVID-19 antibodies sit on a table at a clinic (AFP/Getty)

Antibody tests for coronavirus will be provided on the NHS under a deal signed by the government, and trials are to begin for separate “20-minute” tests.

NHS staff and care workers are first in line for the antibody checks, which can tell whether a person has had the virus and produced the antibodies to fight it.

It is hoped that people who have already had the virus have developed immunity to it. Scientists do not yet know what level of protection is built up.

Experts say increased herd immunity to the disease is required to allow more people to return to normal life without disruptive lockdown measures.

Health secretary Matt Hancock confirmed at a daily Downing Street press briefing on Thursday that the antibody contract included provision for 10 million tests. They are being supplied by Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Roche.

Mr Hancock also announced the start of trials of a swab test to detect Covid-19 in just 20 minutes. A&E departments, GP testing hubs and care homes in the county of Hampshire will begin the 4,000-person trial. These tests involve taking a swab from inside the nose or the back of the throat.

Some healthcare firms have suggested so-called “immunity passports” could be issued to people who have had the virus. They are in talks with the government over the policy.

Other experts have, however, said such a system would be impractical and the World Health Organisation has urged caution, warning there is not yet any evidence that people who have had the disease are immune.

Mr Hancock said that a study suggested that 17 per cent of people in London and around 5 per cent of the rest of the country have coronavirus antibodies.

He also confirmed a certification system was being developed, telling the news conference: ”It’s not just about the clinical advances that these tests can bring.

“It’s that knowing that you have these antibodies will help us to understand more in the future if you are at lower risk of catching coronavirus, of dying from coronavirus and of transmitting coronavirus.

“We’re developing this critical science to know the impact of a positive antibody test and to develop the systems of certification to ensure people who have positive antibodies can be given assurances of what they can safely do.”

UK health authorities approved the use of new antibody tests in Britain last week – they are said to be 100 per cent accurate, and Boris Johnson has previously described them as a “game-changer”.

The government’s separate test, track and trace programme to identify people with the virus and who they have come into contact with is due to start on 1 June. However, a contact-tracing app that is part of the programme is running behind schedule.

Asked about the struggling pilot, the prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters: “The whole point of piloting the app is to identify any issues with it in order to ensure they can be ironed out. That work is ongoing.”

They added: “We believe we’ll have an effective track and trace system in place by 1 June.

Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, urged caution over reliance on antibody tests at the Downing Street press conference on Wednesday.

He said: “What we don’t absolutely know at the moment is whether having antibodies, and having the antibodies that are tested in those tests, means that you won’t get the virus again.

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

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1/13Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Cheryll Mack, 46, a registered nurse in the emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift outside the hospital where she works. "The Covid-19 spread has affected a lot of livelihood, a lot of people's lives. It has created a crisis, death in general. So I would like to ask not one single person, but all people worldwide, to converge and join the platform that this is something that nobody can fight individually," said Mack.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Dr Laura Bontempo, 50, an emergency medicine doctor wears her personal protective equipment she uses when she sees patients, while posing for a photograph after a nine-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moments have actually been separating families from patients, there is a no-visitor policy now and taking people away from their loved ones is very challenging," Bontempo said. "I'm used to treating sick patients. I treat sick patients all the time. It's very different knowing that the patient you are treating, is actually a risk to you as well. That's the main difference here. No one who works in hospitals is afraid of treating sick people. Just want to keep staff safe and the patients safe at the same time."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Ernest Capadngan, 29, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment unit poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment during the shift was just seeing Covid patients die helpless and without their family members beside them," Capadngan said.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Martine Bell, 41, a nurse practitioner in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a six-hour shift outside the hospital where she works. "The hardest thing in all of this, has been taking care of fellow healthcare providers. It really hits home and it's really scary when you see someone that could be you coming in and now you're taking care of them. It's also hitting home that once healthcare providers start getting sick, who is going to be taking care of the public," Bell said. "It's very stressful, everyone is on edge. We don't know who's coming in next, or how sick they're going to be, or if we are going to get a whole bunch of people or if we're not going to get no one. It's a really stressful and just a completely unusual time for all of us."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Kaitlyn Martiniano, 25, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment poses for a photograph after a 12.5-hour shift, outside the hospital. "We have a lot of patients and they are pretty sick right now but we have not yet been hit as hard as New York or Seattle, so I feel like we are very lucky with that so far. Every day you have to just be optimistic." Said Martiniano. "I think the reason that we are not being hit as hard right now is because so many things are closed, and because so many people are staying at home."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Tracey Wilson, 53, a nurse practitioner in an intensive care unit (ICU), poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "I had a patient fall out of bed today and I had to call his wife and tell her and she couldn't come see him, even though she pleaded and begged to come see him," Wilson said. "There is a lot of unknowns and with that unknown is a lot of anxiety and stress that we're not used to dealing with."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Meghan Sheehan, 27, a nurse practitioner in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "I think the hardest moment has been the fear that lives within all of us. There is a lot of unknown right now. We fear what's going to happen tomorrow, how the emergency department will look next week when we come in. We have fears about our own colleagues, whether they will fall ill. We also fear that we could be asymptomatic carriers and bring this virus home to our families and our loved ones. There has been a lot of fear over our supplies and whether we'll run out. And then obviously there is the fear that we will see patients and not be able to do everything we normally can to help save patients' lives," Sheehan said.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Kimberly Bowers, 44, a nurse practitioner in an ICU, poses for a photograph after a 13-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment was a young woman who died and her family wasn't able to be here with her," Bowers said. "I think right now, it's just frustrating and scary just not knowing what comes next."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Tiffany Fare, 25, a registered nurse who works at a biocontainment unit poses for a photograph after a 13-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works. "One of the hardest moments was having to see a family member of a Covid patient, say goodbye over an iPad, rooms away. That was a tough one, I can't imagine how hard it would be to be saying goodbye, you can't see your loved one and then they're gone," Fare said. "My team has been really great to me. We've worked really well together and we've really come together in this crisis. We don't really know each other, we all come from different units within the same hospital, so for us to come together and work so well as a team, it's been a journey but I think that's what is giving me hope."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Dr Kyle Fischer, 35, an emergency medicine doctor, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift, outside the hospital where he works. "Since it's a new virus, we don't have any experience with it. For most diseases I am used to seeing it and taking care of it and this, I don't have any starting place. I know what I'm hearing from New York, I've read all of the papers it seems like, but no one knows what the correct answers are, so there's a huge amount of uncertainty and people are really, really sick. So it's hard to second guess whether or not you are doing the right thing when you think you are but you never quite know," said Fischer.

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Julia Trainor, 23, a registered nurse at a surgical ICU, poses for a photograph after a 14-hour shift, outside the hospital. "The hardest moment was having to put a breathing tube in my patient who could no longer breathe for herself and after the breathing tube went in, we called her family and the husband, of course, couldn't visit her because of visitor restrictions at the hospital. So I had to put him on the phone and hold the phone to her ear, as he told her that he loved her so much and then I had to wipe away her tears as she was crying," said Trainor. "I'm used to seeing very sick patients and I'm used to patients dying but nothing quite like this. In the flip of a switch, without the support, they're completely isolated. They're very sick. Some of them recover and some of them don't. But the hardest part, I would think, is them having to go through this feeling like they are alone."

Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Lisa Mehring, 45, a registered nurse who works in a biocontainment unit with Covid-19 patients, poses for a photograph after a 12.5-hour shift, outside the hospital where she works in Maryland. "Seeing these new moms have babies has been the hardest moment along with having do their pumping for the new moms and them not being able to be with their newborn children, it's hard to think of the family that they are missing," Mehring said.

Photos Reuters

Inside US hospital: A day fighting the coronavirus

Jacqueline Hamil, 30, a registered nurse in an emergency department, poses for a photograph after a 12-hour shift outside the hospital. "The hardest moment of my shift today, I was in charge, and we had a really sick patient that was in a really, really small room and usually, when we have sick crashing patients, we can have a ton of resources and a ton of staff go in and help with the nurse and the doctors that are taking care of that patient. But due to the patient being ruled out for the coronavirus, we could only have five or six people in the room at a time and putting on all the gowns and gloves and masks and face shields to protect us in case the patient does have coronavirus, it takes a while, so the nurse that was in there, ended up being in the room for you know 6, 7 hours with minimal breaks and it was hard being in charge and knowing that she was stuck in the room and really nothing I could do to help her," Hamil said.

Reuters

“I wouldn’t want people to think just because you test positive for the antibody that it necessarily means that you can do something different in terms of social distancing or the way you behave.

“Because until we are absolutely sure about the relationship between the positive antibody tests and immunity, I think we as scientists would say we need to tread cautiously.”

The prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters: “The tests will be free for people who need them, as you would expect. NHS and care workers will be prioritised for the tests.”

Asked whether everyone will get access to an antibody test through the NHS, Professor Powis said: “It is the early phase of these tests and where we will use them first is in health, and probably social care settings for patients, obviously, but also for staff in those settings where it is most important that we understand about infection.”

Superdrug is the first high street retailer to offer a home antibody testing kits. The £69 DIY kit requires users to take a blood sample at home, which is then sent off for laboratory testing.

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