The Star Tribune is reporting today that the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic are ready to start COVID-19 antibody tests. They are hoping antibody test could help determine who is no longer a threat. Hopefully other states are doing the same, or that the Mayo will share the information nationwide.
The story is behind a paywall here:
But is another piece of good news in the battle against the virus.
I’ve been waiting for this. I’m truly curious, since quite a few people - medical professionals and not - believe this has been here longer than we think. I’m skeptical of that theory, but I’d love to see evidence either way on whether many people already have antibodies. Plus our family has had two rather lengthy URIs this year (neither were severe, though), and I would love to know if we’ve had it and escaped with mild cases. We actually just completed our 14 day self-quarantine after the latest illness on Sunday. Not that we’re going anywhere now anyway. 
Completely agree with you. The way forward until an effective vaccine is released will need to combine both testing for active cases as well as antibody tests so we know who is still at risk and who isn’t. It would also be nice if someone figures out a way to keep infected folks off the ventilators so we aren’t needing to lean so heavily on the ICU beds.
Yes, we need more tests in some areas and then the antibody tests. I feel like we’re still flying blind for the most part.