LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Were you sick earlier this year and wondering if you contracted COVID-19? Thousands of people have gone to one clinic in Lexington to get antibody testing just to answer that question.
Doctor John Mullins says his office, Marshall Lifestyle Medicine, uses a finger prick test, which picks up about 97 out of 100 cases with positive coronavirus antibodies.
"Every now and then, somebody will come in that had no symptoms and they want to be tested and they test positive, but those are few and far between," Dr. Mullins said.
When we interviewed Dr. Mullins in May, his office had done 700 antibody tests with only 1% of the tests coming back positive. In July, Marshall Lifestyle Medicine has done 2,400 tests and only 2% have come back positive, meaning 29-40 people have tested positive for antibodies.
"What we're noticing is there's little clusters. So there may be 10 positives that are all family members, which would really skew the numbers. If you took out the clusters, the numbers are really close to 0," Dr. Mullins said.
Dr. Mullins says the antibody testing offers people a peace of mind.
"Are the symptoms I had back in January and February, were they the COVID? Everyone just wants to know," Dr. Mullins explained. "Even if it doesn't change how they behave, they want to know the truth. They want to know if they've had it and how to move on with their life."
The office will be doing testing as long as there's a need. The tests are $35 each and can be covered by HSA.
