COVID-19 serology testing for anyone who is 7 years of age and older that lives or works in Nobles County is being provided by the Minnesota Department of Health on Saturday, October 10th, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, October 11th, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The testing will be held at the Nobles County Fairgrounds, 601 Stower Drive, Worthington, and is free.
Antibody testing results will not impact the current case counts for the area.
A person’s immune system develops antibodies to help fight off the virus when a person contracts COVID-19. The antibodies are in a person’s blood whether they show symptoms of COVID-19 or not.
The testing involves a finger stick to draw blood to be used for the antibody testing. Participants will also be asked to fill out a short survey which will take about 15 minutes to complete.
The study that is being done aims to provide a better understanding of how the COVID-19 virus spreads throughout a community.
Because there have been a relatively large number of COVID-19 cases in Nobles County, results from that county can help to further develop the scientific understanding of COVID-19 and its spread.
The Minnesota Department of Health explained about the serology results through the following information:
“ • My COVID-19 antibody blood test is negative: What does this mean? This means nothing is in your blood that shows you have been infected at any time with COVID-19. This may be because you have never been exposed to or infected with COVID-19, or your infection is too new for antibodies to show up yet in your blood.
• My COVID-19 antibody blood test is positive: What does this mean? This means your blood shows that at some time you were infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. However, it is important to note that at this time, we do not know if having antibodies means you are protected against getting COVID-19 again in the future. We hope to learn more about this in the future. A positive antibody result will not affect local case counts.
• If I have antibodies, can I still infect others? If you have antibodies but are not actively infected, you cannot infect others. If you have antibodies, you may be less likely to be infected in the future and therefore less likely to infect others in the future, but we do not yet know the extent to which this is true.• Does a positive result on the antibody test mean the person is immune? Tests in laboratories show some antibodies have stopped infection, but we do not know yet if these antibodies can do the same thing to for real infections.”
Visit primarybio.com/r/nobles for more information and to make an appointment. If you are unable to sign up online, call 1-855-612-0677 for assistance.
