CHENNAI: The city corporation has initiated antibody testing for COVID-19 frontline workers.
Staff and officials of various ranks including sanitary workers, fever survey staff, volunteers and doctors working under the city corporation will be tested for antibodies, Chennai Corporation
Commissioner G Prakash said.
In the first batch, around 1000 officials across various ranks in the Ripon Building, the corporation headquarters, were tested on Thursday.
The antibody test is said to be faster, throwing out results within a few minutes, and is done using blood samples.
For COVID-19, the RT-PCR method is standard but time consuming and so this test is done in parallel for quicker results, Prakash said.
“If the IgM antibody is detected, they will be initiated into the treatment cycle. If the IgG antibody is detected, they are free but will continue to wear masks and follow precautions. If both of these
are negative, it means they have not been infected so far and have to follow precautions like everyone else,” he said.
The Corporation chief also said that 227 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have given false or incomplete addresses and wrong phone numbers and are untraceable.
“They are unnecessarily scared of being placed in quarantine. They need not be worried. Out of 80,000 (cases), 227 is a small number but we can’t let it go. We are talking to the police and checking every day,” he said.