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 The fingerprick tests, which can tell within 20 minutes if a person
has ever been exposed to the coronavirus, were found to be 98.6%
accurate in secret human trials held in June, the newspaper
reported.
It added the test was developed by the UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC),
a partnership between Oxford University and leading UK diagnostics
firms.
Britain's only antibody tests approved thus far have involved blood
samples being sent to laboratories for analysis, which can take
days, The Telegraph said.
Anticipating a regulatory approval in the coming weeks, tens of
thousands of prototypes have already been manufactured in factories
across the United Kingdom, the report added.
Ministers are hoping that the AbC-19 lateral flow test will be
available for use in a mass screening programme before the end of
the year, the newspaper reported.
"It was found to be 98.6 per cent accurate, and that's very good
news," Chris Hand, the leader of the UK-RTC, was quoted as saying by
The Telegraph.
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"We're now scaling up with our partners to produce hundreds of thousands of
doses every month", Hand said, adding the government's health department is in
talks with UK-RTC over buying millions of tests before the year ends.
The tests are likely to be free and would be ordered online instead of being
sold in supermarkets, according to plans cited by the newspaper.
"While these tests will help us better understand how coronavirus is spreading
across the country, we do not yet know whether antibodies indicate immunity from
reinfection or transmission," a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman
was quoted as telling the newspaper.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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