Italy’s hardest hit regions in the north are also floating proposals for immunity certificates based on antibody blood tests, which have not yet proved reliable. Virus experts caution that such documents are a long way off.
The blood test only tells us if the person has been in contact with the virus,” not if the subject is actually immune, said Andrea Crisanti, an expert at the University of Padova who is helping to coordinate the coronavirus response in the northeastern region of Veneto.
Significantly, he said, the tests also don’t show whether antibodies are active, their quantity or how long they might last.
″On a social level, the blood test would allow us to understand to what extent the virus has spread in various sectors of the population and geographical areas, where we could then test to see if the virus is active,” Crisanti said.
″We are a very long way from immunity passports.″