New York will begin testing thousands of residents in the coming week to determine whether they have antibodies to the novel coronavirus that has brought much of the state to a standstill over the last six weeks.
The state plans at first to survey up to 14,000 New Yorkers per week for antibodies to the virus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today during a media briefing. It must significantly ramp up that capacity, as a crucial component to reopening businesses, schools and government offices. The State Department of Health is overseeing the massive undertaking.
Antibody tests aim to determine whether a person has been infected by a particular pathogen. Someone who has been infected with the coronavirus will have antibodies to it in their bloodstream.
Cuomo said the FDA has approved the state’s antibody test and it will be rolled out this week.
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“That will tell us for the first time what percent of the population has actually had the coronavirus and is now immune to it. It will give us the first true snapshot of what we’re really dealing with,” Cuomo said.
The diagnostic testing that has been done to date — indicating 242,786 New Yorkers tested positive for COVID-19 — does not take into account people who contracted the virus but were not tested, including, presumably, many thousands who “self-resolved” and still others who never even knew they had the virus.
The state must also ramp up diagnostic testing even as it ramps up antibody testing in order to stop the spread of the disease, the governor said. Even though the state has done 500,000 diagnostic tests, he said, it’s not nearly enough. The state has a workforce of 9 million people and a population of 19 million.
Just as it’s important to test people for immunity to the virus, it’s important to make sure people who are presently infected are quarantined and that their contacts are traced, he said.
Cuomo has been pressing for federal help with ramping up diagnostic testing, saying repeatedly that the state cannot do the job the way it needs to be done on its own.
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