In a few days, people who have contracted the coronavirus will no longer test positive for COVID-19; they’ll test positive for antibodies in their immune system.
That’s according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who says the U.S. is “days away” from switching over to the new test, which detects protein-based antibodies generated to fight COVID-19. Not only will the new test reveal whether a patient has been infected, but it will also indicate if they’ve contracted the virus and recovered, Fauci says.
Having this information will be important in formulating a plan to fight the virus, says Stanford Professor Eran Bendavid, who’s already tested 3,000 people. “I think this [study] has very important implications for how we understand the epidemic, for how we move it forward," Bendavid says.