King George's Medical University begins anti-body testing for health workers

Lucknow: The King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow has started anti-body testing, becoming the first medical facility to start this.

In the first phase, anti-body testing has been done on 100 health workers and plasma donors.

Senior KGMU doctor, Dr Tulika Chandra said that rapid testing is being done for anti-bodies and the results are available with three to four hours.

This test determines whether a person has anti-bodies needed to fight the virus. Antibody testing is similar to rapid testing where results are declared accurately in a few hours.

Many countries are now testing for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at the population level or in specific groups, such as health workers, close contacts of known cases, or within households.

WHO supports these studies, as they are critical for understanding the extent of - and risk factors associated with - the infection.

Dr Chandra further said that anti-body testing will also be helpful in determining herd immunity in the coming times. It will define how many people in a community have sufficient anti-bodies.

Anti-body testing is particularly focusing on health workers, doctors, and frontline Corona warriors who come into contact with Corona patients.

Uttar Pradesh, at the moment, has 6,186 active Corona cases while the total number of COVID-19 cases is 17, 731 and the number of deaths is 550.