Testing for antibodies have begun in the Maldives in an attempt to identify past infections of COVID-19 that have recovered.

Speaking at the NEOC press conference, Spokesperson Mohamed Mabrook Abdul Aziz said that the testing will begin at the expatriate residences currently under monitoring. And so, sample collection has begun today for antibody testing.

Antibody or Serology tests are done to see if a person has an illness and to check their immunity for illnesses. The test also shows if a person has recently recovered from an illness. However, if the test is done a day or two into an infection, it would not show the person as ill. The testing for COVID-19 in the Maldives is usually a PCR test.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the Maldives is 1143 with a large portion of them being expatriates.