Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to make a covid-19 antibody test available to the general public.

The science of immunity remains uncertain. A positive test result for antibodies, does not mean that the person being tested is immune to COVID-19.

Therefore, the value of antibody tests is currently limited to answering the question of whether someone has had the virus or not, which is why we have started the national roll-out in the National Health Service and care sector where there is a clear need to know who has had the virus. Since the end of May, lab-based antibody tests have been provided to NHS and care staff, as well as hospital patients and care residents in England as appropriate. General practitioners are also able to request an antibody test for use in their routine management of patients, including for any patient who is already having blood taken as part of other tests.