The antibody tests detect whether a person has had coronavirus and if they are now immune (Picture: AP)

The UK government has ordered millions of coronavirus antibody tests but none of them are fit for use, the new Public Health England testing chief has admitted.

Professor John Newton said tests ordered from China were only able to accurately confirm immunity in patients who had been severely ill, meaning they would not work for those who had suffered more minor symptoms. The antibody tests use blood to determine whether a person previously had Covid-19 and if they are now immune.

He told The Times not one of the tests ordered had passed the evaluation and ‘are not good enough to be worth rolling out in very large scale’.



Professor Newton said: ‘The test developed in China was validated against patients who were severely ill with a very large viral load, generating a large amount of antibodies… whereas we want to use the test in the context of a wider range of levels of infection including people who are quite mildly infected. So for our purposes, we need a test that performs better than some of these other tests.’


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The professor said the country will no longer be buying millions of the kits but remains ‘optimistic’ that a valid test will be available in the coming months, as government scientists have been working with commercial companies to improve performance.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government had bought 3.5 million testing kits, with officials saying they could be sent home within days but the professor said this ‘was based on the fact that we might just buy the existing test’. However, he said it was best to try and improve the test before rolling it out.

His comments come after the government faced immense scrutiny for a lack of testing, with frontline healthcare professionals saying it is putting them at risk every day.

NHS workforces have been depleted due to many self-isolating, but the antibody tests would be key in allowing them to safely return to work.

Many have also asked why the UK was testing fewer than other countries, such as Germany where 500,000 tests are carried out per week, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock responded to criticism by saying there was a shortage of materials.

The millions of tests ordered are said to be invalid (Picture: Getty)

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He vowed that a target of 100,000 daily tests would be reached by the end of the month by using private labs and that NHS staff will ‘absolutely’ get tested.

Mr Hancock said that figure would include swab and antibody tests – the latter of which could be carried out at home and would reveal a result in as little as 20 minutes.

However, he said large-scale antibody testing will only be rolled out when clinicians are confident it is a valid test, insisting that ‘no test is better than a bad test.’

‘We are currently working with nine companies who have offered these tests and evaluating their effectiveness,’ he said. ‘These antibody blood tests offer the hope that people who think they have had the disease will know they are immune and can get back to life as much as possible as normal. But they have got to work.’





But public health expert, Dame Deirdre Hine, who led an official review of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, said she couldn’t comprehend why the government wasn’t already prepared with readily available tests.

She said: ‘I am finding it difficult to understand why both the antigen testing and the antibody testing is taking so long to get off the ground…

‘I think that if there is anything perhaps where the response could have been better this time it is on the whole question of testing.