MORE ENCOURAGING COVID TEST RESULTS

MORE ENCOURAGING COVID TEST RESULTS

It’s another day of encouraging COVID-19 test results for Cayman.

The Chief Medical Officer, Dr John Lee, reports 191 COVID-19 tests have been carried since it the last report on Thursday and all were negative.

Those tests are what’s known as the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, which checks for evidence that the virus is currently in the body via a swab sample from your nose or throat.

So far, 31,299 of these tests have been carried out in Cayman.

Another key test now being carried out is the antibody test.

To date, the number of antibody tests that have been conducted at the Health Services Authority and Health City Cayman Islands stands at 2,096.  

Of these, there have been a total of 54 positives (2.6% positive), where 36 are people previously positive on a PCR test and six were contacts of previous PCR positive people.

This leaves twelve, four of whom have a travel history abroad during the recent months and eight who have no identified COVID-19 contact history.

As explained by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the Antibody test looks for evidence in a blood sample that your immune system may have responded to the virus already.

It has the potential to tell a lot about who might have previously been infected with the coronavirus.

Different types of antibodies are produced by the immune system in response to ‘foreign’ invaders in the body, such as viruses, and these antibodies stay in the body after the infection has ended. 

Antibodies are quite specific to the type of virus and can provide immunity against catching the virus again. 

It is not currently known how long coronavirus antibodies stay in the body.