Expert: Some 17,000 People in Serbia To Be Tested for Coronavirus Antibodies

Virus test (Beta/STA/Rosana Rijavec)

The Institute of Public Health of Serbia Batut deputy director, Darija Kisic Tepavcevic, has said that tests for coronavirus antibodies will be rolled out by the end of the week and that the testing will last 60 days to determine the percentage of the people that has developed immunity.

"A representative sample will be drawn. In phase one, 1,000 people will be tested and these results will be available shortly. The goal is to have 7,000 families, that is 17,000 people tested", Kisic Tepavcevic has told the May 5 issue of Belgrade daily Blic. She specified that the potential participants will be telephoned and explained all the details, and if they wished to be tested, as testing will be on a voluntary basis, an appointment would be made in a health institution closest to them.

"All participants will fill in a questionnaire and give their consent before they have their blood tested", Kisic Tepavcevic said, adding that each participant would be later informed on whether they had developed immunity to the coronavirus.

Epidemiologist Predrag Kon on May 5 expressed skepticism that a high rate of herd immunity had been developed, noting that it would be known during the summer months when a new series of testing would be rolled out and when the virus would ease off.

Zoran Radovanovic, an epidemiologist and retired professor of the Belgrade School of Medicine, on May 5 said that the first wave of the virus was ending in Serbia, but stressed that a second wave could hit before the summer if the countermeasures were lifted too soon.