Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Sunday said mass antibody testing was the key to determine when the lockdown ends.
“Antibody testing will tell us how much of the population is now immune to the coronavirus and that would decide lifting of lockdown restrictions,” said DAK President, Dr Nisar ul Hassan. “The immune testing, which only requires a drop of blood will enable us to check in minutes the presence of antibodies in person’s blood which indicates that the person had infection and is now immune to the virus,” he said.
“A positive test forantibodies means the person would be able to return to work without the risk ofgetting infected or spreading the disease,” he said.
Dr Hassan said the lockdowncannot go forever. “At some stage we will have to strike a balance betweenensuring public safety and getting the nation running again,” he said.
“Sudden end to allconfinement measures at this point of time would risk exposing untold number ofpeople to the virus. This would lead to second wave of infection that would doaway all the good work that has been done so far,” he said. “Key to preventinga second wave of infection is sequential and differential containment. This isimportant because the peak of the epidemic is not going to happen everywhere atthe same time, as the virus spreads differently in different regions,” said DrHassan.