Coronavirus antibody test receives FDA approval, provides results in 15 minutes
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday promised New York will launch “aggressive” testing for coronavirus antibodies this coming week.
In his daily news briefing, Cuomo revealed that the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] has approved New York’s antibody test. He spoke from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset; the Long Island institute has worked on developing an antibody test.
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“Now that we have the approved test, we’re going to be rolling it out to do the largest survey of any state populated. That has been done,” Cuomo said.
“We’ll take thousands of tests, antibody tests over this next week all across the state to give us a real snapshot or a real baseline of exactly how many people were infected by coronavirus and have the antibodies.”
The FDA last week approved an antibody test developed by Chembio Diagnostics, a Hauppauge-based company. It was not clear whether Cuomo was referring to was the same test.
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He reiterated the importance of testing as a step toward reopening the state, even as other states have started to relax lockdown measures and stay-at-home orders. He said he aimed to have thousands of New Yorkers get tested this week to get a clearer picture.
“Any plan that is going to start to reopen the economy has to be based on data and that means it has to be based on testing,” he said. “We’re going to start and we’re going to start here in the state of New York with antibody testing.”
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Cuomo continued, “Antibody testing means you test the person to find out if they have the antibodies, which they would have if they were infected with the coronavirus, and we’re going to do that in the most aggressive way in the nation where we’re going to sample people in this state.”
The governor said noted early on in his briefing that his state was “on the other side of the plateau” and “numbers are coming down,” but he stressed that the state could not ease off on measures just yet.
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“Whether or not the descent continues depends on what we do.”
New York has seen over 236,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 17,600 deaths, according to recent estimates.
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