Private medical company offers Covid-19 antibody tests for £50 in Milton Keynes

ECG medical training company at Bradwell Abbey is offering the service to all local people and businesses who would like to know their status..

They started the service last week and already it is proving highly popular, said the company's CEO Jane Lambert, who is a qualified nurse.

The BIOPANDA fingerprick test can identify if the body has developed an antibody response to a Covid-19 infection by picking up tiny amounts of IgG antibodies in the blood.

It has 99.9 per cent sensitivity, which means that among 1,000 people who have had coronavirus, almost all of them will correctly test positive. And it has

98 per cent 'specificity', meaning that among 1,000 people who have not had coronavirus, 980 of them will correctly test negative.

"This BIOPANDA test is more accurate than many antigen or other antibody tests. Many antigen PCR tests have very low accuracy rates and have further issues such as the potential for cross contamination of samples," said Jane.

Because the test is CE approved, it can only be carried out by a medical professional and cannot be sold directly to the public to self test.

So far, 90 per cent of the people tested by EGC have proved negative for antibodies.

The test itself is a small white oblong box and works in a similar way to a pregnancy test in that lines appear if the person is positive. It is not designed to detect whether anybody currently has the infection - only whether they have recovered from it.

"Most people come in here really wanting a positive result," said Jane. "They really want those antibodies - and you can see the disappointment on their faces when the lines don't appear!"

People who test positive are often "delighted", she said. "One lady was so thrilled that she took a picture of her positive test and put it on Twitter to celebrate."

Though currently there is no evidence that the presence of antibodies means people have immunity against further infection of the virus, many people are still keen to know if they have had Covid-19.

The test should only be performed 21 days after recovery from any coronavirus symptoms or 28 days after contact with someone with coronavirus symptoms. This is to ensure that there has been enough time for detectable antibodies to have built up in the blood, said Jane.

ECG is charging £41.67 plus VAT per test, which works at at £50.

"This is just to cover the cost of the test and the nurses time. We are not looking to profit from it," said Jane.

Tests are by appointment only and you can book here