We need to be very cautious about preliminary studies estimating how many people have already been infected by the coronavirus

Antibodies in blood taken from people who recovered from COVID-19 are widely seen as a key to developing a possible cure for the disease

The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

BBC presenter Jeremy Vine has trialled a "have you had it?" antibody coronavirus test not yet approved by the Government.

UK scientists have developed a new coronavirus antibody test which they say produces results in 35 minutes with 99.8 per cent accuracy.

Antibody tests at 98 per cent accuracy would put up to a quarter of population at risk of infection, government advisers have warned.

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Regulatory “flexibility” was never meant to allow fraud, agency says.

On Monday, officials in Los Angeles County released preliminary results of a study that suggest roughly 4.1% of the county's adult population has already had the coronavirus, which translates to between 221,000 and 442,000 people, factoring in adjustments for statistical margin of error.That's a much higher number than confirmed case counts indicate. (As of early Tuesday, the county had 13,816 cases.)"We haven't known the true extent of COVID-19 infections in our community because we have only tested people with symptoms and the availability of tests has been limited," Neeraj Sood, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California and lead investigator on the study, said in a statement.Dr. Barbara Ferrer, LA County's public health director, said in a statement that the early results pointed to the possibility that many people may have been unknowingly infected.The study relies on rapid antibody tests, which have faced concerns about accuracy.And as The Mercury News reported, a Stanford study that also showed higher rates of infection in Santa Clara County drew criticism, although that was largely from statisticians over the study's methodology.Still, experts have emphasized that more studies will help develop a clearer picture of the virus's true prevalence.In any case, officials say it's crucial to continue to adhere to public health orders for many reasons, including that if more people are infected but asymptomatic, they could unknowingly spread the virus.______A change to the USNS Mercy's assignmentOn Monday, my New York Times colleague John Ismay and I spoke with leaders aboard the Navy hospital ship Mercy. Here's our dispatch about how their assignment has changed:In the weeks since the Mercy arrived at the Port of Los Angeles from San Diego, the hospital ship's mission has been clear: Serve as a crucial relief valve for patients who have not been infected with the coronavirus as hospitals fill up with patients sick with COVID-19.In recent days, the work has shifted, but that underlying goal has remained the same, the commanding officer of the ship's medical facility told us."FEMA, after having made an assessment of the situation and the local needs, has changed our assignment," said Capt. John Rotruck, the medical treatment team's commanding officer.The Mercy has sent 40 medical staff members -- two family practice doctors, 16 nurses and 20 corpsmen, including two respiratory technicians -- to help care for patients who do not have COVID-19 at a state-run skilled nursing facility in Orange County."We're essentially augmenting their staff," Rotruck said, as the anticipated surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations has, for now, been held at bay.The capacity onboard will decrease to 250 beds from 1,000, in large part as a result of that staffing shift -- although officials emphasized that leaves more than enough space at the rate the Mercy has been taking in patients.At the same time, leaders aboard the Mercy said that most of the military crew is moving off the ship to stay at nearby hotels to make it possible for crew members to keep their distance from one another as they work, eat and sleep.Sailors will be bused from their hotels to work their shifts aboard the ship.The move, which will decrease the number of crew members staying aboard the ship to roughly 140 from more than 800, came as the number of crew members who may have been exposed inched upward.By Monday, Rotruck said that nine crew members had tested positive for the coronavirus and that about 130 people were in quarantine because they had come into what federal officials define as close contact with at least one of those nine. All of those in quarantine tested negative.All nine who have COVID-19 were outpatients as of Monday -- meaning their cases were not severe enough to warrant being hospitalized -- and their conditions are being closely monitored.Rotruck said that moving crew members off the Mercy was unusual but not unprecedented.During a previous mission, for instance, some medical staff members flew to Vietnam to provide medical care to patients on the Mercy, although they did not sleep on the ship.However, Rotruck added, "We have not done it to this scale," with the vast majority of the ship's crew members living ashore.A spokesman said Friday that the crew aboard the Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is docked in New York City, recently moved most of its crew to hotels ashore as well.Rotruck said that the Mercy was ready to care for coronavirus-negative seniors living in nursing homes, as the governor has previously announced, but none had been transferred yet.Such nursing home patients may be moved to the Mercy for care through the typical intake process, if, for example, a facility needed to free up space to care for COVID-19 patients.As of Monday evening, the ship had taken in 65 patients total since it docked in San Pedro, and its crew had performed 22 surgeries. There were 13 patients still being treated onboard, meaning that 52 had been discharged.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

In New York, the number of patients coming to the ER with COVID-19 symptoms has dropped and there is hope that the worst is behind us. As we look to the future, many of my colleagues on the frontline are eager to know if they have antibodies.

Antibodies should indicate if someone has had an infection in the past. But the promise of “immunity testing” is plagued by uncertainty about how the immune system responds to the coronavirus, as well as concerns about the tests’ accuracy.

Infectious disease experts are raising questions about the reliability of early coronavirus antibody tests and studies that hinge on their results.

Roche’s antibody test for Covid-19 has been given the CE mark and has been issued Emergency Use Authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Pharmaceutical company says it can produce tests in the high tens of millions by June

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The pharmaceutical giant Roche has devised a new coronavirus antibody test, which it is aiming to launch in the UK next month.

Antibody testing, which has already been utilised in Germany, South Korea and Finland, is seen as a way for countries to exit lockdown by showing who has already had Covid-19 and could therefore have a degree of immunity.

Related: Antibody tests aren't perfect, but they may be Britain's way out of the lockdown | Eleanor Riley

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Roche scored a major win with the FDA's backing for its COVID-19 antibody tests last week in a field marked by products of questionable quality. Now, to cover its booming production goals, Roche plans to infuse nearly half-a-billion dollars into its German manufacturing facility. 

Gilead Sciences' remdesivir, now called Veklury, has won a fast Japanese nod in SARS-CoV-2. The Big Biotech's scouting licensing partners to ramp up supply around the world. Eli Lilly has signed on China's Junshi Biosciences to develop neutralizing antibodies against the novel coronavirus. And more.

by Lucas Waldron and Nadia Sussman

Many people across the country experienced COVID-19 symptoms but could not get a test to confirm if they actually had the virus. Now some are looking to a different kind of coronavirus test for answers.

Antibody tests are meant to recognize a past infection. Many of these have hit the market in recent weeks and are being offered at local clinics. Officials have touted the tests as crucial for reopening the economy and developing public health strategies to contain the virus.

But there are still questions about how accurate they are. And even with a very good test, it's possible to test positive for antibodies even when you don't actually have them. Watch our new video to learn why.

Australia’s largest biotech company CSL says it is working on a plasma-based therapy for patients with more severe forms of COVID-19.

GlaxoSmithKline is hard at work with partner Sanofi in getting a vaccine tested for COVID-19, but this morning it said it was now also entering the race to treat patients already hit with the disease.

Sorrento Therapeutics is jumping into the race to develop therapies against COVID-19, teaming up with Mount Sinai to develop a cocktail of antibodies from the blood of 15,000 recovered patients. The company's scientists believe their multipronged therapy will sidestep risks such as treatment resistance.

Sorrento Therapeutics and Mount Sinai Health System in New York City have joined forces to develop an antibody cocktail they hope will shield against Covid-19 infection for up to two months.

Assays that detect prior novel coronavirus infections could reveal the extent of outbreaks. But they may give individuals false security

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Inaccuracies in the testing, such as false negatives and false positives, are potentially harmful

We need to be very cautious about preliminary studies estimating how many people have already been infected by the coronavirus

Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday said he witnessed a "significant breakthrough" by the country's biological research institute in developing an antibody to COVID-19 infection. Bennett visited the labs of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), a secretive unit that works under the Prime Minister's Office, in Ness Ziona and was briefed by the research team, who revealed that the development phase of COVID-19 antibody or passive vaccine that attacks the virus and neutralizes it in the body has been complete, his office said in a statement cited by The Jerusalem Post.

IIBR is now working to patent its antibody and secure a contract for its commercial development. All legal procedures will be coordinated with the Defence Ministry. "I am proud of the Biological Institute staff, who have made a major breakthrough," Bennett was quoted as saying. "The Jewish creativity and ingenuity brought about this amazing achievement," he added.

Last month, IIBR announced that it had begun testing its antibody-based vaccine prototype on rodents. IIBR is also involved in plasma collection from people who have recovered from infection with the new coronavirus, in the hope that this might help research, the Post reported further.

A second Israeli research team, MigVax, has also reported that it is close to completing the first phase of development of a coronavirus vaccine. Last week, it secured a USD 12 million investment from OurCrowd to accelerate the path to clinical trials.

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Specific viral properties can aid in predicting the efficacy of antibody-based treatment for HIV-1, according to a study published in the iJournal of

Chief executive Mark Bristow says miner has taken lessons on tackling coronavirus from experience of Ebola outbreak

Immunity tests are seen as crucial to ending the global lockdown, but ministers in Britain and Germany have said they are not yet reliable enough.

Boditech Med, based in Chuncheon, South Korea, is now manufacturing thousands of its iChroma COVID-19 antibody kits, which it claims are 96 per cent reliable.

The UK Government made plans to conduct the 'biggest surveys in the world'. But still, less than 4,300 have taken place at Public Health England's lab, despite the goal of 5,000 per day in April.

Nadeem Anwar, who runs Patrick Superstore in Glasgow, has already bought 100,000 kits from China and is waiting for another 225,000 to arrive.

The United Kingdom wasted $30 million on nearly two million antibody test kits found to be inaccurate.

Madonna was seen in a room with at least eight people on Saturday after this week sharing a video claiming she was 'going out to breath the COVID-19 air'.

CityMD launched walk-in antibody and COVID-19 testing Tuesday as New Yorkers waited for hours to receive a test to show if they had had coronavirus.

A new study from the University of Texas at Austin found that antibodies produced by llamas bind to proteins found on the coronavirus and prevent them from infecting cells.

Swiss drug maker Roche says its coronavirus antibody blood test has a specificity rate of 99.8% and a sensitivity of 100%, meaning it would show very few false positives and no false negatives

Roche Diagnostics has finally created a kit that is accurate enough to be used at scale - and the firm says it has enough stock to provide hundreds of thousands to the NHS every week.

Ministers have ordered production of up to 50 million new immunity tests as part of what experts hope will be a 'game-changing' development in the battle against Covid-19.