A test to identify if people have been infected with coronavirus has been approved for wide use in Britain.
The blood test searches for antibodies to see if a patient has already contracted coronavirus and whether they now have a slight immunity, the BBC reports.
The UK has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases with more than 230,000 testing positive since the outbreak begun and over 33,000 people have died according to Johns Hopkins University.
Russia has soared ahead with cases recently over taking the UK with the second highest number of cases but is still well below the United States with 1.5 million cases and 85,000 deaths.
As reported by the BBC, Public Health Britain says the antibody test, developed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, is "very positive development" in the fight against Covid-19.
Antibodies are produced by our immune systems when fighting infection and can be used to identify if a patient would have had coronavirus. It doesn't prove if they have built immunity.
The test developed by Roche found that if a person had been infected with Covid-19, it was likely to give a correct result 100 per cent of the time.
While if someone did not have coronavirus the correct result was over 99.8 per cent of the time.
Th results given from an antibody test as opposed to a swab test are believed to be much quicker.
The World Health Organisation has also expressed concerns about accuracy. (Source: Other)
In April, New Zealand's Ministry of Health ruled out the possibility of approving antibody testing over concerns of accuracy associated to the test and was considering restricting their importation.
Chief science advisor, Ian Town told 1 NEWS in April that scientists in New Zealand had tested over 70 antibody tests but many had been discounted over issues with reliability.
The World Health Organisation has also warned countries over the reliability of the test results.
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