Coronavirus: All sumo wrestlers in Japan to undergo antibody tests

Testing will start next week with all results expected to be known by end of June

It will be the first case of such large-scale antibody testing in the Japanese sports world (Getty)

The Japan Sumo Association will conduct antibody tests, which can show whether a person has ever been infected with the new coronavirus, on all of its about 1,000 members, including sumo wrestlers, referees and yobidashi callers, it was learned Wednesday.

The testing will start early next week, with all results expected to be known by the end of June. It will be the first case of such large-scale antibody testing in the Japanese sports world.

After the declaration of a national state of emergency was extended, the association cancelled this year’s Summer tournament, which had been slated for later this month at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. It now aims to hold the July tournament without spectators while moving the venue from Nagoya to Tokyo. The association intends to use the results of the tests to prepare measures to hold future tournaments by determining the extent of infections in the sumo world.

Antibody tests are designed to examine whether a test taker has a history of infection with viruses or other pathogens. Antibody tests, in which the presence of antibodies can be determined in a short period of time with a small amount of blood, are simpler than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which require special equipment and take four to six hours to produce results. Antibody tests can play a role in understanding the overall infection situation.

The Washington Post