Luxembourg is about to launch a study to see how many people are likely immune to the infectious virus that causes Covid-19 so that they can resume closer-to-normal lives, government officials said.
A panel of researchers has been mapping out a strategy for how Luxembourg could use the results of a trial run of about 1,500 people whose blood will be tested to determine whether their immune system has confronted and killed off the coronavirus.
The health ministry plans to announce details of the blood testing program soon, spokeswoman Laura Valli said in an email on Tuesday, declining to be more specific. She did not respond when asked how the ministry would select test subjects from among the population.
“It will be important to know how many people have built this immunity.” ~ Health Minister Paulette Lenert
The tests measure the presence and strength of the disease-fighting antibodies that provide what is hoped will be immunity from further contracting the illness, which so far has claimed 41 lives in the country.
The level of immunity against Covid-19 that the antibodies provide, and the period over which they protect against the disease are details researchers around the world are frantically trying to determine.
Luxembourg is working to be among the world’s first countries to test its population for the extent of coronavirus immunity, Health Minister Paulette Lenert said last week.
“It will be important to know how many people have built this immunity,” Lenert said at one of her regular press conferences, last Friday. “We are basing ourselves on a test which will be made on a sample of the population to see to what extent the virus is present.”
Heading for the exit
The northern Italian regions of Veneto and Emilia Romagna began antibody testing of health workers last week. The United States expects to roll out antibody tests within the month, while Belgium, Germany and the UK are among the countries also building up to widespread checks.
The respiratory disease has infected 2,843 people in Luxembourg, forcing 223 to seek hospital treatment, including 32 in intensive care.
Establishing who is safe from the disease is seen as essential in restarting economic activity that has stalled for weeks. Luxembourg and other governments have enforced population lockdowns because the only known way to fight the outbreak has been to limit the virus’s spread.
“In case of proven immunity, your isolation period could come to an end, making it possible for example to go back to work again,” said Dr. Frederik Verbeke, a Kirchberg general practitioner and medical consultant for the European Commission.
Luxembourg’s standards agency, which is responsible for approving the quality of antibody tests and other medical products, has approved the reliability of one German-made serology test and is studying a second from South Korea, Lenert said last week.
Other versions are in development by companies in the US, China and elsewhere, according to the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, a Geneva-based non-profit that tracks health product developments.
The European Commission’s science service is helping ensure that antibody tests – and others measuring the presence of the contagious virus – meet a common, minimum quality standard, a spokesman said.
Italian and British politicians have said one goal for antibody testing is creating a sort of “immunity passport” that allows relatively free movement and work for those bearing the biological evidence that they would no longer contract or pass the virus.
Though antibody detection should be made broadly available as soon as possible, testing should focus first on finding disease immunity among those working in hospitals and homes for the elderly and disabled, according to a report published this weekend by Munich’s Ifo Institute.
Even those found with Covid-fighting antibodies should be tested regularly since it’s unproven how long their immunity might last, the physicians and other researchers behind the report said.
“Only with the availability of valid antibody tests will it be possible to determine how many people have experienced an infection - detected or undetected,” the report said.
Lenert and Bettel emphasised that Luxembourg will be slow and careful in reducing movement restrictions to avoid a new wave of infections, something Lenert called “progressive deconfinement.”
“This is more like the path we are going to follow, rather than an exit,” she said during the press conference. “Monitoring will allow us to assess and possibly change certain things.