It is now understood, at least as things stand, that as many as 25 to 50 percent of those infected with the new coronavirus (COVID-19) may not develop any symptoms whatsoever, and serological testing should, as such, reveal just how many people have truly acquired immunity against coronavirus, or when we might expect "herd immunity" to occur, which is when most people become resistant to the virus.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 17th of April, 2020, tests for antibodies in the blood will show how many people have carried the virus or have experienced some symptoms of it, but didn't know they had coronavirus. The director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, revealed to 24sata that a sample of one thousand people will be tested first. After that, the testing will progress to what's known as a stratified sample across all counties, many more people will be tested, and samples across all population categories will be taken.
"The purpose of these tests is to see how many people have gotten the virus, to know what level of immunity we have out there in the population, but also to let people who have been tested know that they're now immune and need not fear," explained Dr. Capak.
It will then be possible to monitor the immunity of a particular person over a longer period, and see whether the immunity acquired from coronavirus is short-lived or longer-lasting. Not much is known about it at the moment. These tests are not diagnostic in their nature, although they may of course also indicate that someone is acutely ill. They show, first of all, whether someone has developed the new coronavirus, what and how many antibodies against coronavirus they've developed and if they've now acquired immunity owing to that process.
The tests for this particular purpose were already supposed to have arrived in Croatia, but in the end it turned out that the suppliers of the tests couldn't be as quick as was desired, he added. Serological tests are being sought by the whole world amid the coronavirus pandemic - by the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom... millions of tests are being ordered.
''We ordered the first thousand, we were told they had them, but now we've been told that they can only arrive in seven to ten days from now, so we're looking for someone who can be quicker with delivery. In addition to that, much more extensive testing by counties has been registered as a project for EU funds [to pay for], we'll probably get the money, after which, this project can really begin,'' noted Capak.
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