“If we assume that the test readings are 100% correct, then this means that 13 people are in the acute phase. If they have no symptoms, then they are asymptomatic. It is possible that they are also carriers of the virus, ”said Yefimov RT.
According to him, there are false positive results, while tests often give false positive results specifically for IgM antibodies than for IgG.
“There are two types of antibody tests: test strips and serological tests using laboratory equipment. The second, of course, more precisely, ”he explained.
The expert noted that those three people who have antibodies of both classes have already been ill.
“Perhaps they have already recovered, and IgM antibodies can remain for up to two, or even three to four weeks,” he explained.
As a result of the study on the presence of antibodies to COVID-19, conducted at 162 employees of the RT channel, IgM antibodies were found in 13 people, and three others had two types of antibodies: IgM and IgG. The remaining participants in the test were not detected antibodies.
RT was the first company in Russia whose employees passed screening tests for antibodies to COVID-19.
It is these tests that are now being passed by residents of the Chinese city of Wuhan, where in December 2019 the first outbreak of a new type of coronavirus infection occurred.