The important role antibody testing could have in combating the spread of Coronavirus

Gov. Gavin Newsom has stressed the importance of increased testing in recent days. The state also formed a designated task force. As of Tuesday, Gov. Newsom said the state has seen an increase in the capacity of testing and getting results back.

On Tuesday the governor was joined by Dr. Mark Ghaly, who also serves as Secretary of California Health and Human Services.

"We are beginning to move beyond just having tests available for the sickest people within hospitals," Dr. Ghaly said.

Dr. Ghaly spoke on the possibility of having serology tests, which measures antibodies in the blood stream within a matter of weeks.

"Antibody testing is so important because then we could catch that asymptomatic population to see what the true infection rate really was," Live Well Clinic Dr. Sonja Fung said.

There is a clear cut distinction when it comes to testing.

"PCR testing is the nasal swab that tests for actual COVID-19 virus, so that’s one way of testing. That’s the actual diagnostic test," Dr. Fung said.

The serological test has the ability to determine if someone has been exposed to the virus in the past.

"It doesn’t diagnose whether or not you have the virus itself because the virus could be gone from your body, but it looks at whether or not your body has mounted an immune response against that virus and now has the antibody memory of having fought off that virus," Dr. Fung said.

As of Thursday 4 serological tests had received Food and Drug Administration approval for Emergency Use Authorization.

Several companies have already began distributing their products and notified the FDA, but that does not mean they have received approval from the agency.

"There's a good and bad to it. Sometime with the FDA approval they have more third party testing so the data could be a little bit more accurate. Is it currently accurate enough? How many false positives are there? How many false negatives are there?" Dr. Fung said.

She said there are still several variables that have yet to be determined when it comes to serological tests.

" I think we just need more data and more studies and a little more time to get the accuracy we need to feel very confident," Dr. Fung said.

Meanwhile, for patients that do plan on getting tested, the doctor recommends asking their doctor questions such as: 'Is this test FDA approved?' and 'If not, how accurate is it?'