28 Chennai Corporation staff quarantined a day after antibody test

According to a civic body statement, antibody tests were conducted on 564 employees at the headquarters and 452 employees of them do not have the infection. "As many as 84 employees have developed antibodies against the virus and they will not get the infection. Results of another 28 employees gave possible infection results. Following this, RT PCR test has been conducted on the 28 employees and they are kept under quarantine. Tests were conducted on Thursday," the release said.

The release also stated that the antibody testing would be conducted on the front-line workers of the civic body. After covering the front-line workers, antibody testing would be extended to the public. Meanwhile, sources in the civic body said that a senior official has also been quarantined after the antibody test.

The antibody testings would be done using rapid test kits, which would show results within 15 minutes. The test would identify IgM or IgG antigen in the persons' bodies. If the results show IgM, the persons would be considered having the infection. If the results show IgG, it would be considered the persons had an infection but recovered. If IgM and IgG show negative, the person neither infected with virus nor contracted the disease earlier.

The antibody tests will also help the civic body in identifying eligible plasma donors based on the amount of IgG present in the recovered persons. Meanwhile, the recovery rate in the city reached 80 per cent on Friday morning as 65,748 patients have recovered from the disease. As many as 15,038 persons are under treatment.