HSC staff receive antibody test results

Saturday 25 July 2020

Just under 3% of frontline HSC staff have been found to have Covid-19 antibodies, suggesting they could have contracted the virus at some point.

Antibody tests for HSC staff began earlier this month to deepen understanding of how the virus has spread in the island. The presence of antibodies can indicate that the person in question may have had the virus.

“What we are now doing is interviewing those individuals, as we would have interviewed our cases, to see if we can see any linkages between the clusters of cases that we had in the early days,” said Dr Nicola Brink in yesterday's media briefing.

“It is important we test these Health and Care workers because it will give us some definition of what the magnitude of our primary wave was.”

Pictured: Dr Brink says those who showed symptoms before on-island testing was available should apply for antibody tests.

517 HSC staff have received antibody testing; 15 were found to have the antibodies, with 477 testing negative and 25 results pending. 

“There is still uncertainty about what the presence of antibodies means for a person’s immunity to future infection,” said Jenny Cataroche, Head of Health Intelligence. “We have to assume at this time that those with antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 could be infected again and could pass infection on to other people.”

Dr Brink said islanders who experienced symptoms of Covid-19 in February or March, before on-island testing was available, are also being invited to have an antibody test. 

Alongside this, a questionnaire is being written for islanders who have recovered from the virus, to see if they have experienced any symptoms since recovery.

Pictured Top: HSC Staff members have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in an effort to understand the virus’ spread throughout the island.