Coronavirus: quick Covid-19 serological tests allowed in pharmacies

Published by Caroline de Sortiraparis, Laurent de Sortiraparis · Published on July 15th, 2020 at 12:08 p.m.
Being quickly tested for Covid-19 is now possible in pharmacies. French health minister has just allowed pharmacies to perform tests to find out if our bodies produced antibodies against coronavirus in a couple of minutes. This test is made based on a drop of blood and costs less than 20 euros.

Knowing if we have had Covid-19 with a single drop of blood? It is possible with the TROD test, and these serological tests are now available in pharmacies. Pharmacies have been asking to be allowed to perform serological tests – that were only made in private laboratories so far – since May.

In their report as of May 22, 2020, the Haute Autorité de Santé [High Health Authority] said “GPs, caregivers, or pharmacists will be able to supervise quick diagnostic-orientation test (TROD). But if a test comes up positive, it will have to be confirmed by a second test in a laboratory. These “TROD” will enable to target a public wider than with the previous tests, especially those who have a difficult access to laboratories”.

Unlike RT-PCR tests detecting coronavirus in nostrils, TROD tests enable to know if our bodies produced antibodies, and if then the cold you caught a few weeks ago was caused by coronavirus or not. Some tests detect the presence of antibodies (IgG) only 14 days after being in contact with the virus, while others show the presence of IgM, one week after the infection.

If you are interested, the test will be commercialized for less than €20, but it requires to be read by a health professional and confirmed with a laboratory blood tests and a virologic test (RT-PCR) to make sure the virus is out of your system or if it is still in there.

This measure will enable to increase the capacity of France to test people. On April 25, French Health minister Olivier Véran announced “the goal to carry out at least 500,000, 70,000 tests a week from the moment we will gradually lift lockdown”.

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