Jersey has secured a deal to buy 500,000 coronavirus antibody tests – enough to test its population five times for signs of past infection.
Residents of the tiny Channel Island, which has had 255 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths, could soon find out if they have already had the virus, and therefore have some form of immunity.
The first 10,000 tests arrived on April 13 and are being rigorously analysed by the government to make sure they are reliable enough.
Only then will the next 490,000 be flown in from across the world to start an ‘Island-wide testing programme’ and relieve the lockdown.
The test only takes 10 minutes, and is up to 97 per cent accurate, according to the manufacturer Healgen, a company based in China.
It is understood that is too low for the UK Government, who have yet to approve an antibody test to roll out nationwide.
Nine commercial tests have been analysed so far, costing millions of pounds, but they haven’t met the Government’s high standards.
Antibody testing is considered key for easing economy-crushing lockdowns because it will give an idea of how many people have been infected with the virus.
Jersey has secured a deal for 500,000 coronavirus antibody tests – enough to test its population five times for signs of past infection
The first 50,000 tests from Healgen – a US branch of Chinese company OrientGene
The tests in Jersey were secured by Gary Hopkinson, a former Jersey resident who runs a distributing business in California, and his business partner, Canadian Alex Schnaider.
They struck a deal to supply 50,000 Healgen antibody detection kits to the island earlier this month through a company they own jointly.
They are now working with the government in Jersey with the view of undertaking a mass screening programme.
Mr Hopkinson said: ‘With 50,000 kits and 100,000 population, Jersey will be the most tested nation on earth by a mile.’
An extra 150,000 tests from another supplier are due to arrive imminently, meaning there would be two per person. A further 250,000 kits have been ‘promised’, so the islanders can be tested multiple times. It is unclear who makes these kits or how accurate they are.
The more times the population is tested, the more data the government will secure. It will help officials understand how the disease has spread on the island, home to fewer than 100,000 people.
But the first set of kits first need to be tested for reliability which will take up to ten days, a statement from the government said. It did not clarify how accurate it would like the test to be.
‘Once the kits are confirmed as offering reliable results, they will be used to support an island-wide testing programme and further kits will be ordered as necessary,’ it added.
The first 50,000 tests from Healgen – a US branch of Chinese company OrientGene – aren’t home-testing kits. They would be conducted by a healthcare worker.
The tests look for two kinds of antibodies: IgM and IgG. The body quickly produces IgM antibodies for its initial attack against infections, and makes IgG antibodies slower for long-term protection.
Healgen says the sensitivity of the IgM test is 87.9 per cent and IgG is 97.2 per cent, compared with the golden standard lab test.
That’s based on an evaluation of 113 blood samples obtained from patients exhibiting pneumonia or respiratory symptoms.
Because it is not 100 per cent accurate, it means some results would be incorrect and could wrongly tell people they have already had the disease, giving them a false sense of security.
However, with half a million tests secured for just 100,000 citizens, any findings can be checked twice over, maybe more.
Mr Hopkinson said: ‘Jersey is actually the perfect place to do an immunology study. So, there is nowhere quite like Jersey that can do this and it can hopefully open up its economy again quickly, based on doing these tests.’
Mr Hopkinson has been supplying kits to various countries and made the decision to help his home island after his sister said that Jersey was short of testing equipment.
The Healgen test uses a drop of blood to give a result within 10 minutes. It will appear like a pregnancy test
Commercial antibody tests give a result on an easy-to-read stick. Pictured, a Boditech Med Inc. test from South Korea
Jersey began doing swab tests for citizens with symptoms on 8 April. This type of test, called a PCR test, is used to directly detect the presence of a virus, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies.
Antibody tests are designed to detect whether a patient has ever had COVID-19. It may show a positive result even if the individual never had symptoms of the virus.
Dr Ivan Muscat, Medical Officer for Health, Government of Jersey, said: ‘Antibody testing kits are an important weapon in our fight against COVID-19.
‘With such a high global demand for these kits, we are pleased that our first batch has arrived.
‘We are living in extraordinary times and there is immense global pressure to get an idea of immunity within populations.
‘While we have sourced the test kits through a robust process, which included evidence of validation through an independent review system, we first need to undertake a rapid local assessment of the accuracy of the test.
‘Following a satisfactory outcome, we can then use these as part of our plan for an Island-wide testing programme. This will help us determine the pattern of infection across the Island.’
Meanwhile, the UK Government is still scrambling to find a commercial antibody test that reaches its standards.
Ministers said a home testing kit was in the pipeline, allowing Britons to do a finger-prick type test themselves to see if they have had the virus.
But so far, none of the tests have proven to be accurate enough by the Government’s standards.
Public Health England has refused to reveal what the Government considers an acceptable level of accuracy.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency – which usually authorises diagnostic tests – says no test under 98 per cent accurate is safe for mass-use.
Oxford University scientists in charge of analysing the tests found home antibody tests were accurate between 55 to 70 per cent of the time.
Antibody tests analysed in a lab, called ELISA tests, were correct 93 to 100 per cent of the time.
Professor Sir John Bell, from Oxford University, said the testing kits he has examined so far ‘have not performed well’ and ‘none of them would meet the criteria for a good test’.
Dashing hopes of lockdown ending any time soon, Sir John said it would take ‘at least a month’ before antibody tests would be available for the public.
Separately, Public Health England are using antibody testing in a laboratory setting for research to understand how many in the UK have the infection fighting cells.
It’s so far screened 5,000 blood samples since February – miles off the 5,000 per week target.
Department of Health data shows only 51 were carried out at the Porton Down laboratory yesterday.
It’s barely a scratch on the widespread schemes being run by other countries who are desperate to get out of their lockdowns.
Health chiefs in the Netherlands, for example, said they would test 10,000 samples weekly from March 19 using the blood donation service Sanquin.
The Italian region of Lombardy began performing 20,000 coronavirus immunity tests per day yesterday, starting with health workers.
The governor of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, said the region had been conducting a ‘search for reliable serological tests’ and have developed one with a hospital in Milan. It is believed to be from diagnostic firm Diasorin, but this is not confirmed.
Andorra has ordered enough antibody tests to screen its whole population of 77,000 nearly twice over, health minister Joan Martínez Benazet said at the beginning of April.
The tests are ‘absolutely reliable’ by the authority’s standards, he added, and will arrive from South Korea via Spain in the next two weeks.