Health Protection Agency (HPA) has begun antibody testing to identify past exposure of people in the Great Male’ Region to COVID-19.
Spokesperson of the Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC) Dr. Fathimath Nazla Rafeeq said the purpose of the study is to identify the percentage of the people in the community who have had past exposure to the virus and recovered. She said all participants of the study are under the age of 18 although it will later be expanded to test people of all ages.
In July, Ministry of Health called all healthcare service providers not to run antibody testing as it identifies people who have had past exposure rather than people who are currently infected with the virus.
While the Maldives has begun antibody testing, HPA has also issued permission to Medtech Maldives to carry out rapid antigen testing. Additionally, Medtech has been requested to carry out PCR testing to ensure results if rapid antigen testing shows a negative result.
Rapid Antigen Testing directly detects the presence or absence of an antigen and this is advantageous in places of community spread as it detects the foreign antigen present right away once an individual is infected.