Germany will be giving out “immunity certificates” to its citizens with coronavirus antibodies present in their blood. People who receive the certificates will be able to leave quarantine before others.
Der Spiegel reports that a study that will allow Germany to find out how many people have already become immune to the coronavirus is currently in the works.
German scientists want to find out how far the virus has spread and understand how many infected people it actually kills.
The test will look for antibodies, which appear in the blood when someone has already recovered from the virus, “indicating that they were at one time a carrier and may have built up immunity,” reports Business Insider.
According to Science News, antibodies are proteins made by white blood cells to fight infections. “They bind to a virus, preventing it from infecting a cell, and can remain in blood long after the infection clears.”
Germany is set to send thousands of antibody tests to its citizens. Those who are immune will be able to resume a normal life, at least as normal as it can be under these conditions.
Germany is currently the third European country after Italy and Spain with the highest level of cases, and the 5th country in the world right after China. It counts 80,641 recorded cases, and 962 deaths, as of April 2nd (14:35 GMT), according to Worldometers.
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