Antibody testing suggests some ‘probable’ NZ Covid cases weren’t infected

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-05-21 11:41

New Zealand

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New antibody testing reveals the early 2020 outbreak of COVID-19 in Southland was largely confined to people who had already tested positive, and higher-risk travellers or close contacts of a known case. Unexpectedly, seven of the nine people diagnosed with ‘probable’ infection had negative antibodies in this study. The authors say the three-month delay before collecting the blood serum may have affected the test’s sensitivity, but it is still unlikely these individuals were ever infected. They say it warrants further testing of New Zealand’s remaining 341 probable cases.