Society

Japan to hold large-scale antibody testing

May 15 (NHK) - Japan's health ministry will launch large-scale antibody testing to see how widely the coronavirus has spread in the country.

The ministry will begin the program in Tokyo, the western prefecture of Osaka, and the northeastern prefecture of Miyagi next month.

The ministry will randomly choose roughly 3,000 people in each of the areas and ask them for their blood samples. Individuals found to have antibodies against the coronavirus can be determined to have contracted the virus.

The ministry intends to use the test results to estimate how widely the virus has spread in those locations.

It will also study the possibility of achieving herd immunity, in which a sufficiently high proportion of people are immune to the virus to prevent its spread.

University researchers have already started carrying out antibody testing. But it will be the first time for the ministry to spearhead it.

Since last month, the ministry has been conducting similar testing on a trial basis while examining the efficacy of testing kits.

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