We're off! Hopefully. Could be yet another false start but this report seems to have a lot more credibility than some.
Germany to carry out first large-scale antibody test for coronavirus
Guy Chazan in Berlin
Germany will be the first country in the world to carry out large-scale antibody testing for coronavirus, which will help show how many people are now immune to the disease.
Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute, announced details of three antibody tests: one of blood donations, one of 4 distinct areas that saw outbreaks of the virus, and a representative study of the broader population.
They will be carried out jointly by the Robert Koch Institute, the Institute for Virology of Charité Hospital in Berlin and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig.
Dr Wieler said the aim was to find out how many Germans were immune to the virus. He added:
We'd like to know how large is the proportion of asymptomatic cases - that is people who were infected by the virus but didn't know it - and to assess how many people in Germany have died, so how high the mortality rate is.
Experts have argued that doing spot checks and randomised tests will be key in uncovering real infection rates for coronavirus, rather than relying on models which use data that can quickly become obsolete. So far, no country in the world has successfully implemented a nationwide antibody testing programme.
https://www.ft.com/content/55a136c0-05f1-39f4-b946-9e099dd05256