Coronavirus Antibody Test Kit

To use this coronavirus test, you must be over 18 years old. The sample should be taken at least 14 days after your symptoms started, or 21 days after your vaccine dose.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include:

a fever, loss of taste and smell, and/or a continuous dry cough, which can occasionally lead to shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

You may also have:

• muscle aches
• headache
• sore throat
• diarrhoea
• tiredness and fatigue
• rash
• You can still order a test kit even if you have never had symptoms of COVID-19 and want to know if you were one of the people who got infected without showing any symptoms.

This test is useful if you:

• want to know if you’ve previously been infected with the virus
• want to know if you’ve had an antibody response after being vaccinated
• want to know if you might have developed some level of immunity to it
• Coronavirus testing is especially important for key workers, and people who are supporting those most at risk.

Yes, we can provide antibody testing if you've been vaccinated and want to check the vaccine's effects on your spike antibody levels.

When you receive your results, we’ll give you a number and let you know your antibody level. If it’s above 0.8 U/ml, then you have a positive result, and we’ll tell you what that is.

It’s important to remember that there is no international standard reference range for these tests yet, which means you can’t compare different test results against each other. Still, it might help give you an indication as to how much of an antibody response you’ve had. However, there are several factors that may also affect your results.

If you have been vaccinated and receive a negative result for antibodies, this can be caused by:

• Testing too early (less than 3 weeks after a dose)
• Having a delayed response (some people develop antibodies weeks later than others)
• Testing after the first dose only (some people only develop antibody responses after the second dose)
• Being immunocompromised, or a reason why your immune system may not react as well as others (either because of a medical condition like diabetes or cancer, older age, medication or lifestyle factors like obesity or smoking)

It's important to remember that a negative result does not necessarily mean you haven't responded to the vaccine. Immune responses after infection involve other immune pathways than just these antibodies. This includes cellular immunity (B and T cells), which are not analysed by this antibody test.

So, if you do receive a negative antibody result after one dose of the vaccine, you should continue to receive your second dose as planned.

PCR Testing

If you have already been vaccinated, it is still possible to catch coronavirus, so if you are showing symptoms, you should order a PCR test to make sure.

Remember, even if you are vaccinated, you can still catch and spread the virus, so it's important to continue following government advice and guidelines.

This is a lab-based blood test that involves using a lancet to prick your finger. You’ll collect a few drops of blood into a small collection tube which you'll post to our UK-based lab for testing.

There are other antibody tests called venous tests where the blood sample is collected by a healthcare professional. Our partner lab has run their own tests comparing these tests and our finger prick tests and the results showed that they were just as accurate. This means your result will be the same, whether you collected the sample yourself with a finger-prick, or it was collected from a vein by a healthcare professional.

You should collect your sample no sooner than 14 days after the start of any symptoms related to COVID-19, or at least 21 days after vaccination. If you’ve never had any symptoms, you can collect your blood sample at any time.

If you collect your sample less than 14 days after the start of your symptoms, you may not have developed antibodies yet, which can produce a negative result despite you having the infection.

This test will tell you if you've had coronavirus in the past if you have developed enough antibodies to detect it. It doesn’t tell you whether you currently have the virus or if you’re infectious to others. To test for the virus itself, and to see if you’re likely to be infectious, see our PCR swab test.

The manufacturer of our tests is reporting that these antibody tests have a sensitivity of 99.98% and a specificity of 98.8%. This means that:

• out of 10,000 people who have antibodies to Covid-19 in their blood, the test will identify 9,998 as being positive correctly.
• out of 1000 people who don’t have the antibodies, we’ll report a negative result in 988 of those cases. This means that twelve out of every 1000 cases might be told they have antibodies when they don’t.

If you were infected but didn’t develop an antibody response, or your antibody levels have gone down, the test might not be able to tell if you’ve had coronavirus before. If you get a positive result, you can be 98.8% sure that you have had this particular strain of coronavirus.

These are CE-marked coronavirus antibody tests that are fully approved for use in the UK. These tests are the same as those used by the NHS and our laboratory is approved by Public Health England.

Do the NHS need these tests?

The tests that have made up most of the government’s figures have been the swab PCR tests which tell you if you currently have an infection or not. There is no limit set to the number of antibody tests that can be done. We’re using a very small part of our partner laboratory’s capacity, which is currently not being used for the national effort. If this changes, we will work with our lab to make sure that we’re supporting the NHS as fully as possible.

Because we already sell other test kits for patients to use at home, we’re able to easily make these lab tests available to a larger number of people, including other key workers who may not qualify for an NHS test.

The price includes:

• a coronavirus antibody sample collection pack
• paid delivery to our partner lab
• analysis of your test at our partner lab
• your results being processed by a doctor and returned to you
• a follow-up from one of our doctors should you need it

Our doctors are also always on hand to answer any questions you may have for free. To do this, please login to your ZAVA account and use our secure messaging service. If you don't have an account, you can register for free here.

To use this test, you will need to provide a small blood sample. You can do this by taking the following steps:

• First wash your hands with warm water and dry them
• Use the included alcotip swab to clean the fingertip you would like to use. You should use the third or fourth finger of your non-dominant hand (the one you don’t write with)
• Twist and remove the purple stick from one lancet, put it on your fingertip and press the purple button at the end
• You should notice a small drop of blood forming on your fingertip, as your skin has been punctured. Use a clean tissue to wipe the first drop away, hold your hand downwards and massage the side of your finger to form another drop of blood
• Use your other hand to gently squeeze the finger you’re using and catch the drops in the collection tube. You should fill the small tube to the upper line. If you are unable to fill it, please use an additional lancet on another finger to complete the sample
• Once your sample is complete, you can use the plaster supplied to stop the bleeding. Put the screw lid on the collection tube, inverting it several times until it is closed securely
• Please make sure you put your details on the sticky label and fix it on the tube firmly as the lab won’t be able to analyse your sample
• Put your labelled tube inside the protective wallet and put the wallet into the prepaid envelope, along with your used lancets. You can use any UK post box to send your test kit back to our partner lab

If you need help taking your test, you can message our doctors for free through your ZAVA patient account.

Once the lab has received your sample, you should get your results within 1-2 days. These results will be sent to you through your patient account.

Positive test results

If you test positive for the coronavirus antibodies, you will know that you’ve previously been infected with the virus, and might have some level of immunity. Even if you have recovered after having the virus you should still follow the rules of social distancing as immunity is not guaranteed. We don’t know how strong the level of immunity is or how long it might last. You may also still be able to spread the virus to more vulnerable people.

Learn more about treating coronavirus

If you have symptoms, use the NHS online symptom checker or call NHS 111 (or 999 in an emergency) if you need more support.

Everything you need to know about self-isolation

Negative test results

If your result comes back negative and you took your sample at least 14 days after the start of any symptoms, you've either not had a previous Covid-19 infection, or don’t have a detectable antibody response. Some studies have suggested some antibody levels fall at around 3 months after infection in some people, though others show they can last longer. You should continue to follow social distancing guidelines because you could still catch it and pass it on.

If you develop symptoms after the test, you should self-isolate as instructed. If you’re feeling very unwell, you should contact your GP or call NHS 111.

There is evidence that some people who get infected with coronavirus do not build a strong antibody response. This means that your antibody levels might drop and become undetectable at some point. And, while our antibody tests are amongst the most accurate available, they can only show evidence of a previous coronavirus infection if you have detectable antibodies in your blood. So, even if you have had coronavirus before, there is still a chance your test will come back negative if you no longer have a high enough level of antibodies.

Can I be more relaxed around rules for social distancing if I test positive?

No one knows for sure how well our antibodies work against fighting off a repeat infection from coronavirus. The likelihood is that you’ll be able to fight it to some extent, so if you do get another infection it won’t be as severe as the first. But we can’t be certain. We also can’t say how long your immunity will last; a few weeks or a few years? So until we do, it’s not safe to disregard social distancing rules, especially since you could still be a carrier of the virus and pass it to others.