The Benefits of COVID-19 Antibody Tests for Corporate Employees
Antibody testing can help determine whether a person was infected with the coronavirus in the past and if they’ve developed enough antibodies to be immune to the virus in the present.
Many employers in America are now considering antibody testing for their workers as part of the requirements for resuming in-person work. A research survey found that 82% of employers want to perform antibody tests as part of a back-to-work strategy.
On the other hand, 59% of employees stated they would feel safer and more comfortable coming back to work if their employers offered them antibody testing.
Today, we’ll see some of the benefits of the COVID-19 antibody test for employees who work in corporations and productions.
Peace of Mind and Sense of Safety for Employees
A significant advantage of employees getting a COVID-19 antibody test is finding out whether they have some measure of protection from the coronavirus. If an employee tests positive for the antibody test, this means their immune system has produced the antibodies needed to fight the virus, offering them immunity against infection.
This knowledge will provide employees with a sense of security and safety when they are working in person at their company. The corporate employees who know they are immune to the virus will be more comfortable coming back to work physically, and they will feel more at ease when they’re inside their organization.
Peace of Mind and Sense of Safety for Employees
Another essential benefit of conducting antibody tests on corporate employees is that it will help keep the workplace safe for all employees, staff, managers, assistants, workers, etc.
If corporate employees are tested for immunity against the virus, it will make it easier to determine who should be allowed to resume work at the company and who should be encouraged to stay home and continue working remotely.
Performing antibody tests on employees will also increase awareness about COVID-19 and the different testing methods available to the employees. The employers could further ensure safety measures such as health screenings at the door, temperature checks, socially distanced work desks, etc.
Ability to Donate Plasma to Other Infected Patients
If a person takes a COVID-19 antibody test and the results are positive, the presence of antibodies in their blood can help other infected patients who are suffering from more severe cases of the infection.
A person who has built antibodies against the virus can donate their blood to hospitals and medical care camps. The plasma in their donated blood can be processed to develop a convalescent plasma product.
This product is helpful for other patients who are battling against the virus. The donation of plasma can help the infected people by boosting their immune systems and helping them fight the virus.
Hence, if corporate employees undergo antibody testing, they can potentially save the lives of other COVID-19 patients.
If you’d like to get a corporate COVID test in Miami, get in touch with us at Good Hearts Testing. We offer Covid antibody tests in Miami, and we provide on-site and in-studio testing along with special discounts for group COVID testing of above ten people. Book online today.
With the pandemic taking over the world and impacting every country, all of last year was spent under lockdown and went by while social distancing. The virus has been quite severe, infecting millions and resulting in around 3.494 million deaths.
Even though general safety measures have been published and increased awareness of these, it has been challenging to curb the spread of this virus. The only plausible solution to the pandemic has been to develop a vaccine. With Pfizer/BioNtech being the first vaccine to be rolled out in the US, several nations such as the UK and China have started to develop their vaccine. With many more vaccines coming up in the near future, an important question on everyone’s mind is whether the vaccines are effective in reducing the risk of infection and if an antibody test is needed to measure this.
How Do Vaccines Work?
It is essential to understand how infections affect your body before explaining what a vaccine can do. When your body encounters an infection, the defensive white blood cells in your body start trying to fight the disease. These defensive white blood cells, also called B-lymphocytes, successfully form plasmocytes to produce antibodies and help your body fight off the disease. However, these antibodies take time to form, and by the time they develop, the person may have been infected and even cured.
The next time a person gets exposed to the same disease, the body has learned how to react and take quick action to fight off the disease. Vaccines work in much the same way. There are several types of vaccines, such as those containing genetic parts of the virus to guide our cells on fighting the disease, vaccines that insert innocuous pieces of the virus so that once our bodies are vaccinated, they can fight off the disease, and many more. Whatever the kind of vaccine, the ultimate aim is to equip our bodies and strengthen our immunity to help fight off the disease in the future.
Increased vaccination doesn’t just protect the individual but helps to protect entire communities. As more and more individuals get vaccinated, there is a lesser chance of the virus infecting someone who is not vaccinated. This happens because a majority of the population is vaccinated. They have a lesser chance of getting the infection, so the infection rate is reduced even for a non-vaccinated individual. This process is called herd immunity and may take years to develop.
Especially in a highly contagious virus-like COVID-19, herd immunity can only develop when around 50%-90% of the population gets vaccinated.
How Long Does It Take Your Body to Develop Immunity After Getting Vaccinated?
Although most vaccines require two doses, some vaccines require only a single shot for a person to get fully vaccinated. Two shots are administered because the first shot helps start the phase in which your body creates protection, and the second shot helps to reaffirm and reimpose this process. Therefore, it can be said that one shot of the vaccine does not create a robust immune response, and so a second shot is needed to ensure it does. The patient cannot be administered both shots simultaneously and must wait a stipulated time frame to receive the second shot.
Even then, your body does not develop immunity instantly. It takes a while—around seven to fourteen days—to build immunity and be fully vaccinated. If you are infected after the second shot but fourteen days have not passed, you will not be considered vaccinated and may need to start the whole process again. While vaccines may boost your immunity for the first months, it is not sure how long vaccination will last in the long run, and a person may have to get vaccinated later again.
How Long Does It Take Your Body to Develop Immunity After Getting Vaccinated?
Antibodies are Y-shaped receptors that are produced to help your body fight off infections. When your body fights off infections such as COVID-19, the response helps develop antibodies produced with the help of your memory cells. Your memory cells contain and remember some parts of the virus remnants inside your body at the time of infection and thus develop antibodies as a response to help fight the same intruders in the future.
Vaccines work to develop antibodies by equipping your body with the tools to ward off infections. That is why people have reported experiencing side effects such as headaches, body pains, and slight fever upon getting vaccinated. Everyone won’t experience the same side effects because of differences in their genetic makeup.
What Will an Antibody Test Tell You?
Antibody testing is used to tell you whether your blood contains antibodies to help fight off the virus. A COVID-19 antibody test will assess whether you have already encountered COVID-19 or whether your body, once fully vaccinated, is ready to fight off the infection. However, it shouldn’t be a surprise that your antibody test result can still come back negative even if you are fully vaccinated.
Positive Result: A positive test result will tell you that you may have had COVID-19 in the past and therefore developed antibodies as a result. This is not a surprise, even if you would have never thought you had the infection. Some people are asymptomatic in that they may get exposed and even get infected by the virus, but they do not experience the symptoms associated with the virus. As many as 40% of those people who get COVID-19 may be asymptomatic.
Negative Result: A negative test result indicates that your body has not encountered the virus recently. However, it is not confident that you may have had a COVID-19 infection sometime in the past. Since it usually takes around three months for antibodies to develop, it also means that they will reduce in the coming months.
The Different Types of COVID-19 Tests:
Although there is usually some confusion regarding the different COVID-19 tests, it is essential to remember that there are two kinds of tests for COVID-19 as approved by the FDA:
PCR test: A much more common kind of test and usually the one most used to determine the presence of COVID-19, it is tested through a nasal swab or throat swab. The fluid is then tested for a few days to determine if your body has COVID-19 germs and is usually the most accurate test out there. These tests are performed by health care professions, further confirming their efficacy.
Antigen test: Also called an antibody test, this test determines the presence of a spike protein of the coronavirus. This detection assesses whether you have had COVID-19 in the past and if your body has developed an immunity response.
The Different Types of Antibody Tests:
Antibodies may be present in your blood for several weeks after you’ve recovered from COVID-19 and may presume a level of immunity. Still, it is not sure how effective these antibodies maybe when it comes to protecting you against the virus. There are typically two types of antibody tests:
Binding Antibodies: These tests showcase one and one thing, and that is whether your body has developed or produced any antibodies as a result of recovery from COVID-19. They only detect antibodies but do not help point out how effective the immunization response is.
Neutralizing Antibodies: Once you’ve tested positive for antibodies, the neutralizing antibodies test comes in. A more novel test tests the efficacy of antibodies in terms of their immunization response. Therefore, it tests out whether your body can fight off the virus to analyze your immunization response towards COVID-19.
Do You Need an Antibody Test After Getting Vaccinated?
The real question is, now that you have gotten vaccinated, can your antibody test help you determine the efficacy of the vaccine? Indeed, this is not true because some individuals have gotten a negative antibody test result after getting vaccinated, indicating that their body has not developed antibodies and, therefore, immunity against the virus.
Since the vaccine is based on the coronavirus spike protein, it cannot be said for sure that an antibody test would indeed determine the presence of antibodies against this spike protein. An antibody is usually helpful in determining whether the patient has previously been diagnosed with the COVID-19 infection. It is not clear that an antibody may be because of a previous infection or because of the vaccine. A conclusion cannot be separated and drawn out.
Another essential feature is the accuracy of the antibody test. Even though the FDA has reviewed and approved the antibody test, certain things may go wrong or measures that have not been accounted for, such as sensitivity with regards to how precisely the test identifies between those who have been vaccinated or infected. The second measure is specificity, whether the test differentiates between those who were infected or vaccinated and does not include others at all.
There have been many cases with people reporting a false positive or false negative test, so the chances are that sometimes an antibody test can also be false, and conclusions should not be drawn from them. Therefore, neither can an antibody test determine the efficiency of the vaccine or assess the body’s immunity from COVID-19.
There are three different types of COVID-19 tests available so far. The first is the polymerase chain reaction or PCR test, a diagnostic test that collects fluid from the nasal or throat cavity and gives results in 48 hours or more.
The second test is an antibody test which is quick and efficient and determines whether a person’s immune system has developed antibodies to fight against the virus. The third test is an antigen test which looks for specific proteins to see if the person is infected with the coronavirus.
Let’s find out when you should take a COVID-19 test.
Contact with An Infected Person
If you’ve had contact with an infected person who tested positive for the coronavirus or is showing symptoms, you should get tested as well, whether you are showing symptoms of the virus or not.
Testing for COVID-19 will help identify individuals who are positive, even if they are asymptomatic or haven’t developed the symptoms yet. This will allow them to find out early in the progression of the disease so they can follow health and safety guidelines and prevent the infection from spreading further.
The incubation period of the coronavirus is approximately 5 to 7 days and can extend up to 14 days. You should be careful not to get tested too early after exposure to an infected person, as this may result in a false negative.
Showing Symptoms of The Virus
If you’re showing symptoms of the coronavirus, then you should immediately get tested. Common symptoms of the virus include fever, extreme fatigue, dry cough, pain in bones and muscles, sore throat, conjunctivitis, loss of smell or taste, headache, diarrhea, discoloration of toes or fingers, rash on the skin, difficulty breathing, chest pains, shortness of breath, loss of movement or speech, etc.
According to the guidelines given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, a person who is showing symptoms of the virus and tests positive should isolate at their home for ten days.
Retesting for Coronavirus
If you already took a PCR test for the purposes of travel or something else but started to show symptoms afterward or get exposed to the virus later on, you should take another test.
If you’re a healthcare worker, the CDC recommends that you should take two consecutive PCR tests within 24 hours, and if both results come back negative, then you can safely return to work.
To get a corona test in Miami, get in touch with Good Hearts Testing. We offer quick and easy COVID testing in Miami for all types of COVID tests, including reliable PCR tests, rapid or antigen COVID tests, and COVID antibody tests.
Our testing services include at-home COVID test and drive-thru COVID test along with in-studio COVID testing and same-day COVID test. We also provide COVID travel certificates for people who want to travel in or out of Miami. Contact us today.
In order to limit the spread of the coronavirus and reduce the rate of infections, it’s important to conduct frequent and expansive COVID-19 testing. A major cause of the rapid spread of the virus is due to asymptomatic patients who have contracted the virus but don’t show any symptoms, so they walk around spreading the infection to others. The only way to prevent this is to get a COVID-19 test and then self-isolate for a minimum of 10 days if the result is positive.
If you’re going for a COVID-19 test, here are some things you should know beforehand.
There Are Three Different Types of COVID Tests Available
The first thing you should know is that currently, three different types of COVID tests are available, namely the PCR test, the antibody test, and the antigen test.
The polymerase chain reaction or PCR test is the most accurate test, which detects certain COVID-19 particles in a fluid sample collected by taking a nasopharyngeal or an oropharyngeal swab from a person. The test can determine whether a person has a live or very recently dead virus in their body at the time of collection of sample.
The second test is an antibody or serology test, which measures the body’s response to the virus by collecting evidence in the form of antibodies in the blood. The presence or lack of antibodies shows whether a person had been infected with the coronavirus sometime in the past.
The last test is an antigen test that searches for antigen proteins of the virus and can reveal whether a person currently has the coronavirus. This test is time-sensitive and cannot provide any data before or after the infection has run its course and is no longer present in the person’s system.
The Different Tests and Meaning of Their Results
If you are showing symptoms of COVID-19 or were exposed to someone who tested positive, you need to get a diagnostic test to determine whether you have the virus. If you undergo a PCR test and it comes back positive, you need to immediately self-isolate and inform people you’ve been in contact with for the past few days about your results.
If you take a rapid antigen test and it comes back negative, a doctor may ask you to take the molecular PCR test to confirm that you don’t have COVID-19. While you’re waiting for the test results, you should behave as if you have the virus and follow all health and safety guidelines.
Lastly, if the antibody test comes back positive, this means you have developed antibodies and can fight against the virus. You should consider donating your blood for plasma to help other infected patients who are battling against the virus.
For convenient and easy COVID testing in Miami, get in touch with Good Hearts Testing. We offer RT-PCR test in Miami along with at-home COVID testing, production COVID testing, drive-thru COVID testing, corporate COVID tests, antigen COVID test, and antibody COVID test at affordable rates. Contact us today or book an appointment online.
When COVID-19 cases started to increase exponentially in late 2019, the US health authorities had issued warning that it would cause serious disruption to everyday life. At that time, doctors had no specific treatment for COVID-19.
To this day, there’s no cure for the virus, but due to increasing public health research, various treatments are helping people survive the virus.
Here are four steps you need to bounce back to recovery after contracting the coronavirus.
Step 1: Were You Exposed to The Virus?
The symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, fatigue, chills, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, cough, diarrhea, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, vomiting, congestion, and chest pain.
If you have these symptoms, quarantine yourself immediately. You can get either PCR or an Antigen test—both tests work well if you’re symptomatic.
Get an Antigen test first. It’s a biochemical test that detects a viral antigen implying that you have a viral infection. The FDA has authorized Antigen tests to be performed on nasal swab specimens that can later be directly placed into the reagent to show results. If the results are positive, you’re infected.
If the results are negative, get a PCR test. PCR stands for Polymerase Chain Reaction test. This test diagnoses people who are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19. Once the lab takes a nasal swab sample from you, they will use special chemicals and a thermal cycler to produce a reaction that will make millions of copies of the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2. In this process, the testing chemical will produce a fluorescent light if it detects SARS-CoV-2 in the sample.
If the PCR test results are negative, it will confirm that you don’t have COVID-19.
If you suspect that you were exposed to the coronavirus, but don’t have the symptoms, quarantine right away. After five to seven days of exposure to the virus, you can get a PCR test.
Step 2: You’ve Tested Positive, Now What?
You must quarantine yourself. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has outlined the guidelines about how you can start and end quarantine. Usually, it lasts for ten days from the time symptoms start to show. If your symptoms have diminished by the tenth day and you don’t show symptoms of fever, you can end the quarantine.
MAB therapy is a new way of treating COVID-19 in individuals who have tested positive for the coronavirus and are at high risk of developing severe symptoms. Researchers believe that MAB therapy can prevent hospitalizations and lessen symptom severity.
Here are the criteria for MAB therapy:
A positive COVID-19 result for patients who are twelve years or older and weigh less than 40kg
People who have a high risk of developing severe symptoms
High-risk features are as follows:
Body Mass Index over 35
Chronic Kidney Disease
Immunosuppressive Disease
Currently receiving Immunosuppressive treatment
Diabetes
Are over 65 years of age
Are over 55 and have Cardiovascular disease, HTN, or COPD
For patients 12-17 years of age:
BMI over 85th percentile for their age
Congenital or Acquired Heart disease
A medical-related technological dependence
Neurodevelopmental disorders
Sickle Cell disease
Asthma, reactive airway disease that requires daily medication for control.
Want to Get Tested?
Good Hearts Testing is a COVID-19 testing facility in Miami. Whether you want to take a travel PCR test, drive-thru COVID test, corporate COVID test, or group COVID testing, we provide same-day results. We also offer Antigen test results in 15 minutes. Book an appointment at our testing center and get accurate covid testing.
Everything You Need to Know About COVID-19 Vaccine
We’ve come really far in learning about the novel coronavirus with different vaccines being rolled out across the globe. We come across new information every day about both the vaccine and the virus. Here’s everything we know about the COVID-19 vaccine.
What We Know
Research shows that COVID-19 vaccine can prevent you from contracting COVID-19. Even if you get the coronavirus after getting the vaccine, it can prevent you from developing severe symptoms.
The COVID-19 vaccine enables your immune system to recognize and combat the coronavirus. It usually takes fourteen days after getting a vaccination for your body to get build immunity against the virus.
This means that a person can get sick if they contract the virus before their vaccine could build immunity against it. Vaccines that have been rolled out so far include the Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and various Chinese and Russian vaccines.
Therefore, until you’re vaccinated with both doses of two-dose vaccines, you need to take precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.
What We Don’t Know
While COVID-19 vaccines are great at combating the virus, researchers are in the process of learning whether they prevent the virus’s spread or not. The answer to this would be clear as more and more people get vaccinated. Scientists are also learning how long a vaccine can protect people from contracting the coronavirus.
Until then, those who are vaccinated must continue to follow precautionary measures.
How Does the Vaccine Work?
As opposed to regular vaccines that inject a small amount of the disease germ (virus or bacteria), COVID-19 vaccine introduces an inactivated part of SARS-CoV-2 to our immune system. While this doesn’t give us COVID-19, it can prepare our body to develop antibodies to ward off the virus if it tries to infect us in the future.
Different coronavirus vaccines work in their own way to protect us, but all vaccines leave our body with memory cells (B-lymphocytes and T-lymphocytes) that create a memory of SARS-CoV-2 in our immune system and remind it how to fight the virus in the future.
Are COVID-19 Vaccines Safe?
Thousands of people across the US have gotten the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC has formulated a safety tool called V-Safe. It’s a smartphone app for people who have gotten vaccinated to check if they are experiencing any side effects.
Some people do get side effects after getting vaccinated, such as tiredness, chills, or soreness in the arm.
Get Tested for COVID-19 in Miami
Whether you want an antibody test, antigen test, or PCR test, you can get it all at Good Hearts Testing. We offer drive-thru COVID test and corporate COVID test and provide same day results. Book an appointment at our testing center and get accurate covid testing.
The Covid antibody test has become just as popular as the Covid test. But, how do these two tests differ? You must know the difference and the circumstances in which you should take each. Here we explore what the antibody test for Covid is and what its results mean:
Antibody Vs. Covid Test
A Covid test indicates whether you currently have a Covid infection whereas, an antibody test checks for the presence of antibodies. Antibodies are protective proteins that are produced by the body’s white blood cells to combat infections. If you do have the antibodies for a virus, it’s a tell-tale sign that you might have contracted the virus some time ago.
You shouldn’t use the antibody test as a replacement for the covid test, as this test only checks for the presence of antibodies and not a current viral infection.
What Does a Positive Result Mean?
A positive result on the antibody test means that you’d contracted Covid or any other virus from the family of coronavirus in the past, which is why you have the antibodies. However, if you’ve had or currently have the SARS-CoV-2, then an antibody test result won’t identify its antibodies. A positive test result could also mean that you were asymptomatic to Covid, which means that you had the infection, but the symptoms didn’t show.
What Does a Negative Result Mean?
A negative result on the antibody test could mean that you haven’t contracted Covid or any other type of coronavirus yet. It could also mean that you currently have an infection, but since it takes the body around 2-3 weeks to produce the antibodies, the test would give negative results at the moment.
Importance of Getting the Covid-19 Vaccine
If you’ve tested positive for the antibody tests, you might think that you’re immune to the virus. This is a false belief as researchers have said that the antibodies produced are not guaranteed to give a long-term or sufficient immunity. In order to be adequately protected, you must get the Covid vaccine.
You should consult your local health experts or facilities to learn more about which test you should take. They will be able to guide you based on your current health conditions. If you do have most of the symptoms of Covid, then take a Covid test as soon as possible.
Research has stated that you’re more likely to contract Covid at an enclosed space, such as a hospital or a clinic. This is why we at Good Hearts Testing offer drive-thru covid testing options for increased safety. We also provide at-home covid testing along with antibody testing and PCR testing for people living in Miami and Los Angeles.
With Good Hearts Testing, you can expect to get quick and accurate covid test results, as we’ve partnered with notable laboratories and use the testing methodology approved by WHO. You can get your results back within 24 to 72 hours. Book your appointment online and take your choice of tests at your convenience!
