New guidelines: t a person can be released from isolation if he is found positive in a serological test

New guidelines published last week by the Ministry of Health show that a person can be released from isolation if he is found positive in a serological test (antibody test) for corona. A serological test checks for the presence of antibodies to the corona in the blood, and in this way it is also possible to identify those who have previously had corona and recovered.
Today, someone who was a verified patient and then recovered from Corona - is not required to be isolated if he is exposed again to a verified patient. The update in the new guideline is that people can now be defined as recovering even if they have been serologically tested and found to be positive. That is, even people who had been infected with corona in the past and did not develop symptoms, were not diagnosed as corona patients and did not even know they were sick. Thus, those people will not now be required to isolate to the extent that they came into close contact with a patient or returned from abroad. All this on the condition that the serological examination was done in accordance with the protocol of the Ministry of Health and guidelines.
The Ministry of Health admits: The serological survey does not represent the level of morbidity
The Ministry of Health does not yet have an orderly policy for performing antibody tests in the population for this purpose, nor is it a service provided by the HMOs. Recently, however, a private industry of serological testing has begun to develop, in which hospitals and other bodies offer private testing at a cost of several hundred shekels - for example for private individuals who want to be serologically tested in hopes of getting an exemption from isolation. One of these hospitals is Sheba Tel Hashomer, which offers a serological examination for NIS 220.
"Such tests will allow those who have fallen ill and have antibodies to continue with the routine, whether to visit the grandmother or to go abroad," said Prof. Gili Regev Yohai, director of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital. In any period of time. If they are positive, it frees us from taking them out of isolation after exposures. In the same way, for example, if teachers and school principals were exposed to a patient and it turns out that they had antibodies - it is a big step forward that will allow the school to continue to function. "
The big question mark is the issue of the duration of immunity from Corona, in light of the evidence from Israel and the world in which recurrent disease was identified, that is, people who recovered and became infected again. Regev Yochai clarified that as long as antibodies are detected in the blood in a serological test, the patient is likely to be immune to re-infection. However, it seems that the level of antibodies in the infected gradually decreases in the months after the disease - so additional serological tests may be needed after a few months. "Our experience in Sheba is that within five months, few people lost the antibodies - even if there was a decrease," explains Regev Yochai.