New antibody testing to determine if someone had coronavirus in the past is not available yet in SLO County
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- San Luis Obispo County has announced that antibody testing for COVID-19 is not currently available in the county.
Antibody testing determines if an individual has previously had the virus that causes COVID-19.
It is not testing to see if someone is currently infected.
The purpose is to give researchers valuable data that can be used to see how the disease spreads undetected and what communities have been most impacted.
"We believe that there probably have been quite a few people in our community who had the disease, but did not get tested," said Dr. Penny Borenstein, San Luis Obispo County Health Officer. "It's people who either had mild symtoms, or when testing was much less available early on, or maybe had no symptoms at all.
Dr. Borenstein added San Luis Obispo County is trying to position itself to administer the tests when they become available.
"We're not there yet in the nation, and we're certainly no there yet in our jurisdiction," said Dr. Borenstein. "We want to have a good sense of how many people in our county have actually had the disease.
She added that other people in other parts of the state have already undergone this type of testing.
"There are a number of places in California that are beginning to test these products that test for antibody," said Dr. Borenstein. "Los Angeles, for instance, released a news story that they tested 900 people. Santa Clara is another place that is working on this. They tested, through part of their research, 3,000 people."
According to a county release, San Luis Obispo officials are working to establish antibody testing, but do not yet have a timeline on when that might happen.
“We are eager to get a reliable antibody test to know if large numbers of community residents previously had the virus,” said Dr. Borenstein. “Right now, we can only test whether a person currently has the virus.”