00:00The COVID-19 antibody test that is available in Dubai now is a very good indicator of how many people have had an exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
00:10And it can help in surveillance and screening of the level of the infection rate in the society
00:16and also help get a good assessment of the herd immunity that may be created due to exposure to the virus.
00:23So let's see what the COVID-19 test does.
00:26Our bodies produce a lot of antibodies in response to any infection or any virus that may infect us.
00:33Similarly, when the COVID-19 virus infects us or we are exposed to it to some extent,
00:38our body reacts and produces antibodies to counter that infection.
00:42This test is not a substitute for the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test,
00:48which is the nasal swab test to detect if you have COVID.
00:52So that test is very essential if a person has symptoms of COVID like breathlessness,
00:57fever, cough, cold, sore throat, they need to have the nasal swab test or the RT-PCR as it's known.
01:04Because when the virus is active from day zero, you can test and know that the virus is active.
01:10And day zero to 14 days, the virus can be detected in your blood.
01:13So that test is actually testing the virus itself.
01:16Another thing is that this antibody test can be used in selecting post-recovered patients
01:23who can donate their plasma for convalescent plasma therapy.
01:28So this test is just a sort of an additional test that can give us better control on the disease,
01:34better screening tools and better surveillance of the society.
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