The public health ministry of England has approved the antibody test for COVID-19 screening, and is touted to be a possible way out of this pandemic.
Public Health England (PHE) has approved Elecsys® Anti-Sars-CoV-2 antibody test developed by Swiss company Roche. It is a lab-based test for antibodies in the blood of people who have had Covid-19 and recovered. This is not similar to the rapid tests. A blood sample from a patient thought to have the disease is taken to a lab that has the analyser machines needed to process it. can provide results in about 18 minutes for one single test, with a capability to do 300 tests an hour.
This test does not give conclusive evidence about the immunity of the person. It will merely describe the percentage of population that has contracted the virus and the extent to which it has spread.
Right now, bulk testing by this method has not yet been confirmed as the UK government is still in discussions with Roche about acquiring them.