Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said Thursday that one of its antibody tests for COVID-19 has successfully completed an independent evaluation by Public Health England that is reliable and precise.

Antibody tests have previously been described as "game-changers" by Boris Johnson (stock image).

All seven had initially tested positive in the TrueNat COVID-19 testing and were then sent to Goa Medical College late night for the second RT-PCR test confirmatory tests.

Experts at the government's Porton Down facility evaluated the Roche test last week, Public Health England said.

"Further research will also help us fully understand the relationship between positive antibody tests and protection against re-infection".

Some evidence suggests that antibodies develop soon after a coronavirus infection, but it is not clear whether that guarantees anything more than short-term immunity from reinfection.

Roche says it will be able to provide hundreds of thousands of antibody tests to the United Kingdom every single week.

It is hoped the test will become available to the wider public, although it is unclear whether this will be via the NHS or through commercial websites.

The decision comes as the state seeks to renew its tourism industry, and as over 500 sailors are expected to return to Goa from Italy next week and a train carrying 1,000 - which was stuck in Delhi due to the lockdown is expected this week, the report said.

The Swiss antibody test has been described as a "very positive development". "A couple of people who helped people to get into the state have been identified and one person who sneaked in has also been quarantined", he said.

The Roche test received a conformity assessment, known as Conformité Européenne, or CE mark, from the European Union on April 28 and received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on May 2.

But he said it was now unclear whether having Covid-19 gave immunity against all future infection with the virus.

Health minister Edward Argar said the Government intends to roll out the new test to frontline workers first.

"We are now in discussions with Roche about that".

"HIV has not gone away - but we have come to terms with the virus".

"We are waiting for confirmatory tests", the Chief Minister said.

Tam said it was too early to discuss the possibility of so-called immunity passports, which the World Health Organization has cautioned against. "He should tell us if protocols for COVID-19 deaths are being followed in Goa", Chodankar said.

"But because we didn't have that testing capacity at the time, it wasn't possible to do that".

The test is created to help identify people who have had Covid-19 without any symptoms, and so may have gained immunity against it.

He added that serology should be used as a complement to ongoing clinical diagnostic testing, which would identify current infections.

"Within that window, we need to contact everyone who you have been near in the last three or four days".