Local urgent care centers testing for COVID-19 antibodies
In addition to COVID-19 testing, local walk-in urgent care centers are now administering antibody tests.
Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) — In addition to COVID-19 testing, local walk-in urgent care centers are now administering antibody tests.
MEDcare Urgent Care clinics are now testing patients for COVID-19 antibodies.
“When exposed to bacteria or viruses, such as the coronavirus, your body mounts a reaction and antibodies are formed. Takes about 14 plus days for antibodies to be detected,” said Alyssa Ursini, a nurse practitioner with MEDcare Urgent Care.
The IgG antibody test checks for an old coronavirus infection.
“We don’t know exactly when the coronavirus arrived in the United States, we know when the pandemic and our numbers started to increase here, and we go based off that but we don’t know exactly when it arrived,” said Ursini.
A lot of patients just want to know if they’ve had the virus, and may feel relief knowing if they’ve had COVID or not.
“We have a lot of patients who come in and say they’ve had symptoms in the winter, a cough for two weeks they were sick then. They think they may have had it in February or March, prior to when we started our actual testing for an acute infection of COVID-19,” said Ursini. “Patients who have found that they’ve had it, typically come in knowing that they’ve had symptoms. They can pinpoint an exact time that they were sick, that they thought they may have had it. And they have a level of relief with it.”
There’s still not a lot known about antibodies and a possible immunity.
“If it follows like the SARS virus that we saw years ago, when patients had it there was a level of immunity found after having it for the first time. So our hope is that there is a level of immunity by having it and testing positive for it, it’s just too new,” said Ursini. “It lets patients know if they have any sort of immunity to future infections. We’re not sure what the immunity level is for it yet, but it gives peace of mind for a lot of patients.”
But if you do test positive, it’s not an excuse to stop taking precautions.
“We still would like you to practice social distancing, washing hands, being smart,” said Ursini.
The test is a simple blood draw, they take one vial of blood and send it to the lab with results expected in a few days.
“For patient’s visiting our centers for COVID-19 antibody testing, insurance will be billed for an office visit. Additionally, we have affordable self-pay options for our patients without insurance. For this specific test, according to Pathgroup our third party lab partner, as stated by the CARES Act, patients (with or without insurance) will not have any out-of-pocket responsibility for the COVID-19 antibody test,” said a representative with MEDcare.
