Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of when an antibody test for covid-19 will become available; and what plans he has for the roll-out of that test.
Confidence in antibody test needs to be established before being rolled out as part of a national programme of testing. The COVID Scientific Advisory Panel, led by Professor Sir John Bell has established a rapid evaluation process to establish the reliability of antibody tests. The results from the first evaluation of commercial antibody tests have shown that, of the tests the Government has looked at so far, none have proven accurate enough to be rolled out for public use.