Spectrum Health now offering coronavirus antibody testing - MLive.com

Signs directing medical traffic near Spectrum Health's coronavirus (COVID-19) triage screening area outside the Emergency Department at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Spectrum Health announced Thursday that it’s offering COVID-19 antibody testing, which aims to detect a previous infection through the existence of disease-fighting antibodies.

The test is available to the general public, but it does require an order from a doctor or advanced practice provider, the Grand Rapids-based health system said in a news release.

“We know that anyone who receives a positive result on this test has been exposed to COVID-19,” Susan Smith, senior director of laboratory services at Spectrum, said in a May 21 statement.

Spectrum said the test targets the “IgG antibody specific to the virus that causes COVID-19,” and that the “test improves accuracy by confirming results using two different mechanisms.”?

“Spectrum Health cautions that the presence of antibodies does not mean you are immune from contracting COVID-19,” Spectrum said in a news release.