At this time, the test is not approved by the FDA for home use by consumers and hence cannot be purchased on our website or at a pharmacy. You can get this test done at a hospital, physician’s office, urgent care center or at a walk-in clinic.
Medicare and most insurance companies will reimburse this test.
Please check with your insurance company.
Our current FDA approval is limited to the use of this test in high complexity, moderate complexity, and waived laboratories.
CovAb™ is an antibody test for COVID-19, which is different from a diagnostic test. CovAb™ tests for COVID-19 antibodies, rather than a current infection. For more information about the difference between antibody and diagnostic tests, please look at the FDA’s “Introduction to COVID-19 Tests” video.
Antibodies are proteins that your body creates in response to infections that help it fight reinfection. With COVID-19, your body typically creates antibodies 1-3 weeks after being infected, and they typically last at least 3-4 months after infection. If you have a positive test result, that means you either were previously infected with COVID-19 or received a COVID-19 vaccine. Having antibodies does not necessarily mean that you are immune to reinfection.
It is not currently known how long the antibodies formed from a COVID-19 response will last in the body. From what we know right now, they last at least 3-4 months after infection, and then they slowly disappear. How long it takes for them to fall under detectable levels depends on the individual; some lose their antibodies in as little as 3 months, while others still have them 8 months after infection. While the antibodies might disappear over time, your body also creates memory cells (which are long-lasting) in response to an infection, which would allow it to quickly produce new antibodies in the event that you are reinfected by COVID-19.
The only way to know if you currently have COVID-19 for sure is to take a diagnostic test. However, the current information available associated with COVID-19 suggests that symptoms include cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever, chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat or new loss of taste or smell. If you currently have these symptoms and suspect the cause is COVID-19, please seek out a diagnostic test for COVID-19.
It’s currently estimated that about 40% of COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic (meaning you didn’t have any symptoms), and about another 40% of COVID-19 cases only produced mild symptoms. If you never had a positive COVID-19 diagnostic test result, the only way to know whether you had COVID-19 in the past is to take an antibody test, like CovAb™.
Once at least 15 days have passed, the chances of getting an accurate negative result (the “specificity”, which means you don’t have COVID-19 antibodies) is 98.8%. The rate of getting an accurate positive result (the “sensitivity”, which means you do have COVID-19 antibodies) is 97.6%.
Yes. Your antibodies don’t last forever. From what’s currently known, the antibodies your body creates last at least 3-4 months after infection. The antibodies eventually disappear, but the rate in which they disappear is different for each person. The only way to see if you still have COVID-19 antibodies is to take an antibody test, like CovAb™.
Reinfection with COVID-19 is currently rare, but possible. When responding to infections, in addition to antibodies, your immune system also creates memory cells, which are long-lasting. When these memory cells identify COVID-19 antigens, they create antibodies very quickly to help fight infection; if you had COVID-19 previously, your body will likely be able to fight future COVID-19 infections much more quickly.
No, this will not diagnose a current COVID-19 infection. This test is designed to be used at least 14 days after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and you can get a positive antibody result long after you’re no longer infected with COVID-19. While it’s possible to develop antibodies while being infected with COVID-19, this test does not look for a current COVID-19 infection.
If you have a positive test result, it is possible that you have or previously had COVID-19 and that you have developed an antibody response to the virus. Your healthcare provider will work with you to determine how best to care for you based on the test results along with other factors of your medical history, your symptoms, possible exposures, and geographic location of places you have recently traveled. There is also a very small chance (about 1.2%, or 12 in 1000) that this test can give a false positive (an incorrect positive result).
If you were infected with COVID-19, then your body produced antibodies in response to the infection, even if you were asymptomatic (meaning you didn’t have symptoms). If that’s the case, then CovAb™ would still detect the antibodies and show you a positive result. It’s also possible that you received a false positive result (you don’t actually have antibodies, but the test results say you do). The rate of false positives for CovAb™ is 1.2%, or 12 in 1000.
Please consult with your doctor.