Britain on Thursday said it was in discussions with Swiss pharma giant Roche to mass purchase its coronavirus antibody test after scientists found it to be “100 percent” accurate, the government said.
Britain has had more than 36,000 deaths in the outbreak — the second-worst in the world — but has partially lifted lockdown measures in England this week.
But ministers and scientists are banking on a reliable antibody test to give people the confidence to go back to work. The Daily Telegraph said Roche was ready to provide “hundreds of thousands of laboratory-based tests” to Britain’s health service each week. The national coordinator of the UK Coronavirus Testing Programme, Professor John Newton confirmed PHE Porton Down evaluated the SARS-CoV-2 serology assay.They concluded “it is a highly specific assay with specificity of 100 percent”, he added.
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